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Remote carriers highlighted at Farnborough Airshow showcase future combat capabilities

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Remote carriers highlighted at Farnborough Airshow showcase future combat capabilities
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Aviation International News | Aviation International News

At the Farnborough Airshow 2024, attention is primarily on the Anglo-Italian-Japanese Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), but the Franco-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System (FCAS) also has a significant presence. As part of FCAS, uncrewed remote carriers (RCs) that can accompany the crewed FCAS core fighter are showcased. Two potential RC concepts are on display at Farnborough following their debuts at the ILA Berlin Airshow last month.

These systems represent both large and small ends of the RC spectrum, reflecting a need expressed by the German Air Force for such vehicles to be available before the FCAS manned fighter enters service in 2040. The intention is for these RCs to partner with and support Luftwaffe’s manned Eurofighter and F-35 fighters in the 2030s. Other air forces have also shown interest in this capability ahead of introducing next-generation fighters.

Remote carriers aim to add "combat mass" and undertake high-risk mission elements from manned fighters. They will perform various roles including attacks in high-risk airspace, decoy duties, reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and defense suppression. These vehicles are network-enabled to communicate with each other and be controlled by manned fighters or other sources. Their design allows them to carry varying payloads according to mission requirements, necessitating variations in size and performance characteristics.

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Airbus is displaying its Wingman concept for a large stealthy remote carrier at Farnborough. The full-scale mock-up represents an Airbus Germany design exercise rather than specific projects but showcases expected features such as advanced aerodynamics, low-observable shape, and internal weapon/sensor payload bays.

Diehl Defence’s Feanix (Future Effector – Adaptable, Networked Intelligent, Xpendable) is also featured at Farnborough. Weighing less than 300 kilograms and measuring under four meters in length, it shares similar attributes with Airbus’s larger vehicle: low observability, long range, and versatile payload capacity including destructive effectors. It is network-enabled for swarming missions with other remote carriers.

While heavy RCs are expected to survive multiple missions due to their cost, light RCs are considered expendable and thus must be affordable enough to provide necessary “combat mass” levels.

Diehl Defence has been increasingly investing its own funds into studying light RCs and launched Feanix as a product aimed at filling a forthcoming capability gap as air forces await sixth-generation fighters.

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