Future Offensive Air System

The Future Offensive Air System was a study which sought to replace the Royal Air Force's strike capability currently provided by the Tornado GR4. Initial operation capability was expected around 2017. The FOAS was cancelled in June 2005^[1] and was replaced by the Deep and Persistent Offensive Capability (DPOC) requirement, which was itself cancelled in the 2010 SDSR. In 2012 France signed an MoU to join the RAF's latest programme for an unmanned Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which will likely be based on BAE's Taranis demonstrator and on the Dassault nEURON demonstrator.

Cancellation

In March 2005 the UK joined the United States' Joint-Unmanned Combat Air System programme.^[2] In December 2005 the UK government published its Defence Industrial Strategy, a part of which was the announcement of increased funding for UCAV technology de-risking and development and the funding for a UCAV Technology Demonstrator Program.^[3] The 2006 US Quadrennial Defense Review stated that the J-UCAS program would be terminated.^[4]

Options

The capability required may have been provided by any number of systems;

• New build aircraft, for instance the BAE HALO (High Altitude Low Observability) or BAE Replica demonstrator.
• Development of current aircraft – For example a variant of the Eurofighter Typhoon or the F-35 Lightning II.
• Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — BAE Corax,
• Standoff missiles (Storm Shadow) launched
  • from next generation strike aircraft
  • possibly from large, cheap non-penetrating aircraft (Airbus A400M)
• Mix of above systems
• BAE Taranis is the likely successor to FOAS.

Contractors

Two industry teams were competing for the contract, one led by BAE Systems and the other by LogicaCMG.

• BAE Systems team
  • Alenia Marconi Systems
  • Lockheed Martin
  • Northrop Grumman
  • MBDA
  • EADS Astrium
  • Royal Military College of Science
• LogicaCMG team
  • Raytheon
  • QinetiQ
  • EADS

References

1. "FOAS (Future Offensive Air System), United Kingdom". Air Force Technology. SPG Media Limited. 2005. Retrieved 2008-07-13.
2. "London Puts Foot in J-UCAS Camp". Aviation Week & Space Technology. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2005-03-21. p. 20.
3. Butterworth-Hayes, Philip (October 2006). "U.K. changes military acquisition strategy". Aerospace America. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. p. 4.
4. Sherman, Jason (2006-01-13). "Pentagon Sets Plan For New Bomber, Terminates J-UCAS Program". Inside The Air Force. Retrieved 2008-07-13.

External links

• "UK Defence Procurement Agency specification". Archived from the original on 2005-02-05.
• New Scientist: Report of BAE Replica programme