As part of the Tempest team in the FCAS (Future Combat Air System) program, MBDA presents its vision for the future battlespace at the Farnborough International AirShow 2022, which takes place between July 18-22, 2022.

Specifically, through the Weapon Effects Management System, MBDA – in close cooperation with its partners in the FCAS program – intends to deliver software that works in harmony with the core platform’s mission systems and sensor suite, providing the optimal response to potential threats.

In an ever increasingly complex operating environment, a pilot – or even remote operator – will need the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) of a Weapon Effects Management capability to reduce their cognitive burden and facilitate the coordination of all available systems on the battlefield.

According to the company, the best possible result may not derive from the system’s core platform, but from an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) or Unmanned Aerial Combat Vehicle (UACV), or even from a system on the wider battlefield, such as a ground- or naval-based platform, or even a combination of these. 

An additional capability of the system is to exploit the sensing and data-linking capabilities of an effector to contribute to a mission system, thus increasing situational awareness. 

This is what the said MBDA software aims to offer to the pilot, providing them the optimal solution to choose from before they even have to think about it.

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Chris Allam, Managing Director of MBDA UK and Executive Group Director of Engineering, said: “At MBDA, we know that networked weapons, cooperating in packs, or even swarms, will provide an operational advantage in the future battlespace. The Future Combat Air System will also have the information advantage in that same space. Coupling the two, the vision for the Weapon Effects Management System is to enable true effects optimization, making complex weapons simple.”

Lorenzo Mariani, Managing Director of MBDA Italia and Executive Group Director of Sales and Business Development, said: “MBDA is able to provide customers with the ability to cooperatively manage effects, including all the technologies needed to defeat increasingly challenging future threats. These capabilities will be the basis of best-in-class next-generation multi-domain systems. The FCAS program is a further great opportunity to cooperate internationally and leverage each country’s advanced capabilities to offer the market new cutting edge performances.”

Working as part of Team Tempest from the outset of the program is enabling MBDA to concept and assess this Weapon Effects Management system alongside all the other partners in the FCAS program, in keeping with the objective of designing a system from sensors through to effectors from the outset.

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