Source · Select Committees · Defence Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Accepted
Build sufficient flexibility into GCAP to operate alongside future uncrewed combat solutions.
Conclusion
There are many unresolved questions about how best to harness Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACPs) alongside the existing and future combat fleet, with the development of advanced uncrewed platforms in particular requiring significant further work. Given these uncertainties it is essential that sufficient flexibility is built into GCAP to allow for the main aircraft to operate alongside a range of future uncrewed solutions. (Recommendation, Paragraph 74) Training
Government Response Summary
The government agrees, stating GCAP's design approach supports continuous spiral upgrades and integrated operation with uncrewed platforms, enabled by defence-wide architecture and data standards.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Department is grateful to the Committee for its recommendation and agrees that our future combat air capabilities must be able to adopt AI and autonomous technologies as they develop. These technologies will augment the capabilities of both the core GCAP aircraft and the additional uncrewed platforms that we envisage operating alongside it as part of the UK’s wider FCAS. In the core platform, they will enhance the effectiveness of both aircraft and pilot, tasking sensors, triaging data, and analysing high-intensity combat situations. Within wider FCAS, these technologies will be fundamental to allowing future uncrewed platforms to operate both with a high degree of autonomy and as part of an integrated system of capabilities. Adoption of these and other next-generation capabilities will be enabled by a design-approach that supports continuous spiral upgrades. Defence-wide architecture and data standards are needed to achieve the greatest military advantage. Importantly, GCAP is supporting a pathway for advancing AI and autonomous technologies that will be key to the development of uncrewed systems. Monitoring adversaries’ development and employment of these technologies is key to ensuring delivery of a combat air capability that can fight and win in the battle spaces of the future, which is why we are designing a capability with rapid upgradability at its core.