Tim Robinson
Editor in Chief, AEROSPACE, Royal Aeronautical Society
From radar to the jet engine, times of conflict and superpower competition have accelerated technological progress in aerospace.
Today, the deteriorating geopolitical situation sees a new chapter in air and space power being written. Multiple conflicts and emerging threats have accelerated investment and rearmament for ‘peer-on-peer’ conflict.
Next-gen weapons reshape defence
Over two decades of counter-insurgency have given way to the spectre of state-on-state warfare. This is fueling the development of sixth-generation stealth fighters (such as GCAP, F-47, and FCAS/SCAF), missile defence capability, long-range air-to-air missiles, precision weapons and more.
As well as the ongoing conflict in Ukraine that presents near-term challenges over producing munitions at scale and dealing with attack drones, the new arms race sees the West and its allies attempting to keep up with rapid developments in China — which has built up an advanced military of its own with combat aircraft, transports, surveillance aircraft, hypersonic missiles, aircraft carriers and more. Only in the last 12 months, it revealed two previously unknown stealth fighters. This is a clear sign of Beijing’s ambition to strengthen its military air power.
Today, the deteriorating geopolitical
situation sees a new chapter in air
and space power being written.
Tech transforming military aerospace
Yet, as well as countries around the world developing these ‘high-end’ weapon systems, as the world moves to a multipolar Cold War 2.0, military aerospace is also facing a technology inflexion point from drones, AI, cyberwarfare, hypersonics and the shift from space supporting air, land and sea forces to becoming a ‘warfighting domain’ in its own right, where satellites will manoeuvre against each other to gain an advantage over an adversary.
In particular, AI is set to reshape air combat, whether through autonomous swarming drones, a ‘kill web’ that connects ‘any sensor to any shooter’ or the virtual design, development and testing of new weapon systems and combat aircraft. While the demise of the fighter pilot has been predicted before (most notably in the UK’s infamous 1957 Sandys’ Defence Paper), today, the exponential growth in AI raises questions about the ‘human in the loop’ in the future battlespace. The future of military aerospace thus looks networked, highly autonomous and operating at a new speed of decision-making.
