In March 2023, during the DSEI Japan exhibition in Tokyo, Leonardo was delighted to announce progress towards this goal. With our international colleagues, we unveiled the partnership to deliver the advanced electronics for the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), known as the Integrated Sensing and Non-Kinetic Effects & Integrated Communications Systems (ISANKE & ICS) domain. The partnership has brought together the national industry champions from the UK, Italy and Japan to produce a deeply integrated sensing, fusion and self-protection capability for the sixth-generation GCAP core fighter.
ISANKE & ICS will allow the GCAP platform to see further, identify and counter challenging new threats, and rapidly manage a large amount of data. It will provide aircrew with exceptional situational awareness, helping to establish the information superiority they will need to succeed in complex and contested battlespaces, as well as contributing valuable intelligence to other operators.
This will itself be a game-changing capability, but is also representative of Leonardo’s broader direction of travel. We are transitioning away from the traditional model of individual platform-orientated sensors and effectors, instead looking to provide deeply integrated systems of systems that can operate across a whole theatre of operations. All underpinned by advances in core sensing and effecting technologies that span the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio frequency (RF) to infrared (IR). As a founding member of Tempest, Leonardo UK is several years into this journey already; our position as our nation’s lead for ISANKE & ICS will allow us to bring these concepts and technologies to fruition at pace.
The benefits of this research and development will not be limited to the future GCAP platform. Spiral development of GCAP capabilities back into RAF Typhoons is an obvious next step, but Leonardo has also identified a number of areas where we can exploit this research and development, and the technology building blocks we have created, in other applications and across domains.
For example, at our site in Yeovil, the Home of British Helicopters, we have the UK’s only onshore design capability for rotorcraft and are one of very few organisations in the world, with an end-to-end capability. End-to-end means the design, development, manufacture, testing and certification of helicopters, as well as the subsequent training and support for customers. This gives us the unique opportunity to exploit some of the deep integration work we are doing for ISANKE & ICS, as well as some of the underlying sensing and effects technologies, baking them into future rotorcraft operational concepts.
Meanwhile in Basildon, Leonardo has been leading a cross-UK-industry team of experts to develop and trial a high-tech new protection system approach for Army vehicles. With the same essential requirements as air platforms to sense, engage and protect, it is likely that a next-generation protection system for ground vehicles could incorporate some of the concepts and technologies currently earmarked for air combat. Furthermore, our systems of systems and distributed sensing approach offers very real opportunities in future land EW capabilities and maritime force protection.
We are deeply proud to be supporting the Royal Air Force in its future combat air journey. As we drive forward with GCAP, we expect to be able to reap the benefits across Defence, contributing to information superiority across domains.
