Tempest fighter to offer UK economic windfall

摘要

A NEW report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has stated that the UK's Tempest programme, intended to deliver a sixth-generation fighter fully in to service from 2040, will provide a significant boost to the national economy over the next 30 years.During a May 25 webinar, organised by ADS Group, PwC officials estimated that the programme would provide a £26.2bn contribution to the UK economy between 2021 and 2050. In addition, wider combat air activities of the four UK-based companies driving the programme were expected to contribute a combined £100.1bn to the UK economy and support 62,000 jobs per year between 2021 and 2050. The PwC report stated the programme would make up an increasing share of the partners' UK combat air activities and that of their supply chains, rising from around 12% today to nearly 50% of economic contribution by 2050. The programme, also known as the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), is intended to secure the UK's defence aerospace industry. To this end, Tempest will be one component in a system-of-systems approach that will deliver manned-unmanned teaming and networked sensor capabilities to the future RAF.