Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) UK-Japan-Italy

[Rhinocrates]

Oh....Delta III !

Fairey's revenge?

Indeed, especially from this angle. Art by Keith Woodcock, for Tony Buttler's British Secret Projects: Jet Fighters Since 1950.

 

[Scott Kenny]

Avro Vulcan Mini-Fighter. Going with basically a delta wing (F-102/F-106 with thrust vectoring), interesting, needs two more elevons? If this is the final configuration, its an interceptor? Nice looking jet. Would be nice with all-moving vertical tails (e.g. NATF-23).

Well, I'm pretty sure that they're deliberately trading WVR maneuverability for better stealth, so I guess you could call it an interceptor in that sense.

And huge wings for lots of fuel to be able to fly from London to Moscow and back.

It's a very different creature from the FCAS, which is constrained by the requirement that it can be carrier based, leading to smaller size/weight and therefore range and payload. I don't mean to say that one is inferior, but that their roles are overlapping less as time goes on.

Agreed. If France is using the same size EMALS as the USN is, that limits their MTOW to around 90,000lbs/40 tonnes. Though the other part of that equation is the arresting gear, which seems to max out at ~55,000lbs/25 tonnes landing weight. And Landing Weight includes enough fuel for at least one go-around plus all the missiles carried, so your aircraft weight limits end up more like 40 tonnes MTOW and ~20 tonnes empty. And of course the elevator dimensions limit the max size of the airframe, but I expect the French elevators to be more or less the same size as the USN.

Note that the Advanced Arresting Gear on the Ford-class isn't said to be able to take any heavier weights than the Arresting Gear on the Nimitz-class, but rather is able to stop much lighter aircraft like UAVs safely in addition to safely stopping the existing heavy aircraft. The older arresting gear stops light aircraft too quickly, because it's set up to stop heavy jets.​

While I'm fully expecting GCAP and NGAD to be roughly the size of an F-111, some 110,000lbs/50 tonnes MTOW, and still aiming for 45,000lbs/20tonnes empty. Yes, fuel fraction of about 55%.

 

[Hydroman]

Definitely putting emphasis on LO rather than agility but with thrust vectoring it will have some. They really want to carry a large fuel load. I agree Scott Kenny, London to Moscow for those vodka runs, that's the REAL fuel!

 

[FighterJock]

So how much fuel would the production GCAP/Tempest carry in comparison to the F-22? Not including external fuel tanks obviously.