LONDON – The companies building the United Kingdom's Tempest sixth-generation fighter aircraft have revealed some of the enabling technologies that be part of the new plane, including a radar system designed to handle as much data per second as a city. New Atlas reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
11 Nov. 2020 -- Under development for the Royal Air Force (RAF), the Tempest will be one of the first sixth-generation jet fighter aircraft. It's designed to complement current combat craft like the F-35 Lightning II and the Typhoon fighters starting in the mid-2030s until the older warplanes are retired in the 2040s.
The stealth fighter will be able to carry hypersonic missiles and control drone swarms, and produce large amounts of electricity so it can power laser weapons.
Along with this, the twin-engine, delta-wing Tempest will have reconfigurable artificial intelligence (AI) and cyber-hardened communications that enable it to act as a flying command and control center, where the pilot acts more as a supervisor than as a dog fighter.
The main partners in the Team Tempest partnership are BAE Systems, Leonardo, MBDA, Rolls-Royce, and the RAF, with hundreds of other high-tech companies and academic institutions also involved. As part of this development, the team is looking at several advanced technologies.
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John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
