PARIS—European militaries should expedite their pursuit of collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) with an eye on introducing the capability before the end of the decade, Airbus Defense & Space CEO Michael Schoelhorn argues.
Combining combat drones with current fighters “is needed to create enough affordable combat mass in 2029-30,” he told the Paris Air Forum. Integration with the Lockheed Martin F-35 that many European countries are buying should also be considered, he noted.
Schoelhorn said the Franco-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program, known as SCAF in France, should consider accelerating the uncrewed combat element of the project that also involved development of a next-generation crewed combat aircraft and cloud-based network. FCAS has a notional fielding timeline of 2040 or later.
When the program was conceived several years ago it was peacetime, but the political situation in Europe has changed, Schoelhorn noted. “We need to be able to deter aggression that is imminent, and we don’t have that time until 2040,” he said, adding “at least subsets of what we call SCAF have to come earlier.”
Pairing collaborative combat aircraft with crewed fighters is not just an issue in Europe. Boeing Defense, Space and Security acting boss Steve Parker said the company’s Phantom Works recently demonstrated the ability to control CCAs from a crewed fighter, adjusting altitude and flight vector.
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