This will certainly not make the FCAS laugh. According to Defensenews.com website, generally rather very well informed, Italy would be ready to publicly announce its participation in the new generation Tempest fighter program, which already brings together Great Britain and Sweden. And unlike the latter, the participation of Italy, and of its champion Leonardo already involved in the program, could significantly go beyond the exchange of technological bricks, to become directly involved in the design (and acquisition) of the program's devices.
This announcement could take place tomorrow, at the DSEI show, where a new model of the Tempest is presented. And it is clear that this model seems very similar to that of the FCAS program bringing together France, Germany and Spain, which was presented at the Paris Air Show this summer. Not that the two programs spy on each other, but they are both positioned on design and use paradigms, and on a very similar format.
In addition, this would be a second European state participating in the Tempest program. All that will be missing, therefore, is a new EU member actor, such as the Netherlands, Poland, or Greece, to make the program eligible for European aid, notwithstanding the fact that it is supported by a country which will soon no longer belong to the European Union (although…). One thing is certain, what until recently was seen as a program primarily intended to force France and Germany to open up to their European partners, now presents itself as a major program which has all the chances of reaching the end…
In the end, the Europeans are heading, once again, towards the manufacture of two very similar devices, both from the point of view of capacities and performances, as are the Rafale and Typhoon, prohibiting any mass production, and limiting the addressing market by the entire European BITD. This division is above all organized by the need of each state to preserve its own capabilities in terms of Defense industrial research and production. The divisible workload being limited on the same program, and each program appearing as the only hunting program for the next 20 years, the countries try above all to consolidate their own investments, and their BITDs.
However, as has been presented several times here, for the price of the Tempest program added to that of the FCAS program, it would be possible to create a program program which would design our not 2 identical aircraft but 3 different aircraft: a light single-engine fighter, a medium embarked fighter, a heavy superiority fighter Aerial. Not only would this approach extend the market addressable by the different devices, particularly to countries that do not have the resources to implement devices that are too expensive and which are numerous in Europe, but it would provide a workload for the entire BITD European aeronautics, while providing high-performance devices, adapted to the needs as well as the threat schedule, and at a naturally very competitive price.
Will the Europeans face the facts and create what could be a benchmark aeronautical program? Nothing is less sure ….