Britains's World（英国に関連する国際情勢や安全保障を中心に取り扱う、専門家たちによるオンラインマガジン）が、GCAPやFCAS（英国の将来航空戦闘システムに関する取組）に関する討論会を開催しました。

本記事ではその討論会の英語スクリプトを記載します。

Future Combat Air: Countering threats and strengthening deterrence　
Season 2 | Episode 14
2026/1/24
https://www.britainsworld.org.uk/p/future-combat-air-countering-threats

【討論者一覧】

➀Britain's Worldの共同創設者（戦略担当）
ヴィクトリヤ・スタリッチ＝サムオリエネ
Viktorija Starych-Samuolienė

➁ジャーナリスト・作家・非常勤フェロー
ポール・メイソン
Paul Mason

➂英国国防省　FCAS担当ディレクター
リチャード・バーソン
Richard Berthon

➃BAEシステムズ　FCASシステム担当　マネージングディレクター
ヘルマン・ケーソン
Herman Claesen

【スクリプト】
Welcome back to Season 2 of Defence Talk, Securing UK Advantage, a podcast brought to you by the Council on Geostrategy in partnership with trade association ADS Group and sponsored by industry powerhouse BE Systems. Here we continue to explore the key questions shaping the defence, technological and national security agendas in the UK.

We start the new year of 2026 with a discussion highly likely to play a significant part in shaping the defence picture over the next 12 months – Future Combat Air. Now, the SDR published last year outline how the delivery of next-generation air capabilities can enhance the UK's armed forces and collaboration with close allies.

We are also one year on from the notable publication of a report by the House of Commons Defence Committee, which outlines several key areas to note within the topic of future combat air. Now, Paul, you are with me this morning a
nd I'm very excited to be doing this episode, Victoria, because I'm from that generation born in the 1960s that had little plastic models of Spitfires hanging above our beds as children. And so I'm very excited by what future combat air could turn out to be. Of course, 
we're also at the time where we're waiting anxiously or with anticipation to see the defence investment plan. And I think the other thing that's happened since our last episode is that the conversation on defence has finally happened, hasn't it? We've finally got CDS, we've got head of MI6, key politicians know
being very frank with the public about threats and capabilities.

Absolutely, absolutely, Paul. And today we are excited to focus on the future combat air, delivering the flight capability of the future. And we've got two wonderful guests joining us to talk about it.
With me on my left is Richard Berthen, is Director Future Combat Air at the UK Ministry of Defence. He's been in the role since January 2020. He is the MOD's lead for Future Combat Air strategy and program delivery, responsible for the acquisition programs and investment plans for Future Combat Air capabilities.
And this includes establishing the Future Combat Air acquisition program, delivering the technology initiative, partnering with industry and leading international partnering. He joined the MOD in 1998 and served in a wide range of postings for the MOD and the FCDO.

And we are also absolutely delighted to be joined by Herman Clayson, who is the Managing Director, Future Combat Air Systems at BE Systems. Now, Herman leads teams of people responsible for shaping the next generation combat air capability for the UK and the design and development of sixth generation combat aircraft being delivered through the Global Combat Air Program.

He has also enjoyed A diverse 30-year career with PE systems both in the UK and internationally, including Saudi Arabia, Far East and Europe. He was previously CEO of Eurofighter GmbH, based in Munich, Germany. And he's also chair of Edgewing, a joint venture established in June 2025. So, gentlemen, welcome.

And we are absolutely delighted to have you with us here this morning. Now I think, Paul, we need to start the conversation by clarifying what exactly certain abbreviations mean.
FCAS, you'll hear it said again and again in the defence world. It obviously means, for us, future combat air system. But could you both give us your best shot at explaining what that is? Because it's a system, not obviously just a thing or platform.

Richard. 
Victoria, Paul, thank you very much. And thank you for having us here today. It's a great pleasure to talk about the future combat air system and the global combat air programme. I'll try to unpack the acronym and the title a little bit and just starting with the very basics, combat air. Two things to say about that.

Firstly, combat air performs at least three of the roles of air power. Control of the air predominantly, but also strike and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The combat bit comes from the fact that these elements go into harm's way, downrange, alone and unafraid, able to operate and survive and fight in a difficult, denied environment against threat.

And that's really where the combat air element comes from. the system part. Historically we've operated with a range of different aircraft performing that function. In its widest sense it's all of the elements of a combat air system including wide-bodied aircraft such as Wedgetail E7, performing ISR functions, air-to-air refuelling aircraft and so on. So this isn't just
a system comprised of fighter jets, but in its widest sense is a much wider military system. But the programme that we're responsible for is very much focused on the parts of the system that go downrange into a threat environment, hence combat air system. the future part of it.

We currently have obviously a fleet of Typhoon and F-35B aircraft but we're thinking about what the system looks like for the future and we are specifically looking at the 2035 and beyond timescale for this programme. Beyond that, it's a system that needs to plug together in an integrated way, perhaps, that we've never done before.

So rather than thinking about different elements of a system and then plugging them together, we're starting with very much system thinking. How do we design the components of a system to achieve an effect?

And of course the enemy gets a vote in what that is gonna be. Presumably this is being designed with a fairly clear view of the kind of threat that it might be going up against. We're well into the era of A2AD, denied environments. How does that change the thinking compared to the previous iterations of aeronautic 
engineering where you've very much not been in that kind of environment?

I think we've described in the SDR pretty well the sense of a threat that's accelerating, it's proliferating. The sort of A2AD, anti-access, area denial, air defence capabilities that you refer to are becoming much more sophisticated, much more connected and much longer at range. And that makes our job incredibly difficult.

Add to that electronic warfare and the disruption of capabilities and communications over range And it means we have to design a system that can go a long way, long range, that can penetrate into that sort of environment, survive in that environment, and perhaps most importantly, 
connect with itself safely and with other elements so that it can prosecute its mission. And that is becoming a significantly harder position across the globe at the moment. We know, we can see that our Our adversaries have invested very heavily in combat air systems and missile defence systems over the last few decades. They recognise its importance.

I think the conflict in Ukraine has shown just what happens if you lose control of the air or if you're unable to establish control of the air. And so it is critically important for the defence of the UK, both homeland and our military operations overseas, that we can achieve this sort of effect.

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