Italy, the UK, and Sweden have signed a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the development of the Tempest Future Combat Air System.

Italian Defence Minister Lorenzo Guerini, UK Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace, and Swedish Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) for development of the Tempest future fighter on December 21. The MoU arrived around a year after Italy officially joined the other two countries to develop Tempest.

Tempest full development phase schedules for 2025

The three countries have agreed to equal cooperation within research, development and joint concepting of the Tempest Future Combat Air System ahead of the project arrangement and full development phase which is currently scheduled to begin in 2025.

The signing was announced by the Italian Ministry of Defence (MoD) earlier this week. The Ministry has described the Future Combat Air System Cooperation (FCASC) MoU as “crucial for the balance of military and industrial capabilities at the European and global level.”

Advanced air system will replace Eurofighter and Saab Gripen

The agreement defines general principles for equal participation and co-operation between the three countries on all activities including research, development and joint concepts necessary for governments to acquire an advanced air system which will replace the Eurofighter in the UK and Italy and the Saab Gripen in Sweden.

The goal of the MoU is for Tempest to create positive effects within the defence industries of each country on small and medium enterprises, research institutes and universities. The three governments are now working to obtain a widespread industry participation to bring in expertise to work on the many technology demonstrations currently in progress.

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