(Tiper Stock Exchange) – Leonardobig Italian defense, announced a contract with the British Ministry of Defense for a value of approximately 134 million euros (£115m), which will kick off the next phase of the ‘Excalibur Flight Test Aircraft’ (FTA) project. The FTA will support the introduction into service of a new combat aircraft, which will form the heart of the UK’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS).
This next generation hunting it will be delivered by 2035 as part of the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), an international collaboration between the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan.
Project Excalibur is a key part of FCAS. The latter will include, in addition to the manned fighter, a wide range of capabilities, such as drones, F-35s, information systems and weapons systems. At the heart of the development of the manned fighter is the FTA, an aircraft Boeing 757 which will be completely overhauled and transformed into a “flying laboratory” for tests and technological developments.