Indra has signed the contract to launch phase 1b of the future joint combat air system, FCAS. This is the largest military project in Europe, with an estimated investment of more than 100,000 million euros, in which Spain participates for the first time on an equal basis with Germany and France. In this phase of technological development, in which more than 600 million will be invested, its own headquarters will be inaugurated in Alcobendas (Madrid), which will generate 1,000 jobs, 400 only at Indra.
The company chaired by Marc Murtra acts as the national coordinator of the program. In France it is Dassault Aviation and Airbus DS in Germany. The three have already signed their respective contracts. Indra is now beginning this phase, which will last three years and which will address the evolution and maturation of next-generation technologies (propulsion, maneuverability, interconnected and distributed sensors, next-generation communications, cloud services, edge computing, artificial intelligence, low observability, interoperability, etc.).
This fighter will mean a leap in quality for the national and European military industry. Traditional combat aircraft will move to an interconnected "system of systems" that will be made up of a Next Generation Aircraft (NGF), various unmanned platforms, remote carriers (RC), and a combat cloud. The pilot will be able to control drones from the device through said cloud.
Phase 1b will give rise to phase 2, which will last for another three years, until 2029. It is at that time that the simulators are expected to come into play. Indrá foresees that the first flight demonstrations will be around 2028, with the ultimate goal of the system entering service in 2040.
The signing of the FCAS comes after years of delay. The project was announced by Macron and Merkel in 2017 and it is now when its progress is sealed. For Indra, this contract is a giant step in the military industry. The company in which the State owns 28% adds an important business and strategic project due to its repercussions on sovereignty at this time of war, for technological and industrial development and for job creation. These aircraft are expected to replace the Eurofighter from 2040.
The Secretary of State for Defense, Amparo Valcarce, reaffirmed this week the Government's commitment to FCAS, adding that the future fighter "has to change the industrial and technological sector in Spain as the Eurofighter program did in the 80s and 90s. ”.
Indra leads the sensor pillar internationally, as the main contractor, and will have Thales and the German FCMS consortium as partners. This pillar is set to revolutionize the sector with a multiplatform suite of networked sensors that will offer collaborative capabilities and services that will multiply the value of the data and contribute to the success of the mission. In the combat cloud pillar, Indra is a national leader and will work with Airbus DS Germany, as prime contractor, and with Thales as partner for the joint development of the key enabling element of the "system of systems" concept that enables collaborative capabilities without precedents between connected platforms
The two transversal pillars, responsible for the definition and selection of the final architecture at the "system of systems" (NGWS) level, as well as the entire global demonstration and validation process at the NGWS level, are internationally co-led by Indra, Dassault Aviation and Airbus. DS Germany. Lastly, Indra is leading internationally, together with the rest of the program's co-contractors, in the definition and deployment of a secure digital environment for classified information for collaborative work.
For its part, Airbus DS Spain leads the participation in the NGF nationally and internationally a pillar focused on low observability technologies; ITP Aero leads the NGF engine nationally; and SATNUS, a consortium made up of the Spanish companies GMV, Sener and Tecnobit, leads national participation in the remote carriers and manned-unmanned teaming (MUT) pillar, following the same industrial scheme that was already established for phase 1a.
Ignacio Mataix, CEO of Indra, stated that the FCAS "consolidates the company as the coordinator of the Spanish industry and one of the great technological leaders of European defense, thanks to the outstanding capabilities of our company in the development of technological systems generation, electronic warfare, radars, mission systems and integrated command and control and aerospace defense, new space, simulation and cyber defense, among others”.
