We are designing a new concept of multisensor solutions that will equip the air combat aircraft of the future, which will come into service as from 2040 and will face the threats we have to anticipate in order to respond to them when the time comes.

Indra is one of the leading European developers of avionics systems and the second supplier of electronic systems for the Eurofighter.

Spanish F18 Hornets have Indra’s electronic defense systems and the A400M from the Spanish Air Force will carry Indra’s infrared countermeasure systems to protect them from attacks with ground-air manpad missiles.

Since 2017, we have also been working on the National Concept Study of Next Generation Weapon System (NGWS) of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), led and financed by the Spanish Directorate General of Armaments and Material (DGAM).

In this project, we are defining the technology that the next generation of aircraft that operates throughout the second half of the 21st century will use.

Electronics, sensors, artificial intelligence and hyperconnectivty, all areas in which Indra is a leader, are the technologies that will really distinguish this new generation of aerial platforms.

These are highly digitized and intelligent aircraft: the FCAS will be able to control swarms of drones in real time, which will act as their weapon platforms; and EuroDrones will operate thousands of miles away from their base, anywhere in the world, while they are controlled through a network of satellites. Both systems will have a high degree of interoperability with terrestrial and naval platforms to complete missions with an integration never seen before.

On June 17, Spain formalized its official entry into the FCAS project. The acting Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, signed a memorandum of intent with her French and German counterparts at the Paris Air Show. Spain thus ensures a 33% participation in one of the most important technological defense-related projects to be launched in Europe in coming decades.

This participation is in addition to the one that Spain already has in the EuroDrone project, in which it has 23% and is a partner of France, Germany and Italy.

Indra is preparing to be part of the industrial group that will make both initiatives a reality. We are the only Spanish company that has experience in major advanced multinational programs in any of the five areas in which the armies of the future will operate - Land, Sea, Air, Space and Cyberspace, areas which are becoming increasingly more interlinked.

This experience makes us the company best prepared to create innovation poles that agglutinate and combine the capabilities of highly specialized small and medium-sized companies, startups, research centers and universities to work in these key projects

* Image: Copyright Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH