3D Printing a Key Element of BAE Systems’ Plans for Its Role in Producing the Tempest Aircraft

The U.K. Government published its Combat Air Strategy in July 2018 with the ambition to develop a new combat air system to replace the Royal Air Force’s two combat aircrafts currently in service, the F-35 and the Typhoon, both of which will need to be replaced by 2040. Part of the Combat Air Strategy is the creation of a group of companies to develop a sixth-generation optionally-manned stealth fighter, the Tempest, and involves BAE Systems, MBDA, Lenardo, Rolls-Royce, and personnel from the Ministry of Defence.

BAE Systems is looking to utilize many different Industry 4.0 technologies at the company’s Factory of the Future, located at its aircraft manufacturing site in Warton, Lancashire where the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), Digital Catapult, Miralis Data, MTT, Three, and IBM are working alongside BAE Systems on its contribution to producing the Tempest.

BAE has stated that 30% of components for the Tempest will be produced using 3D printers. The company has already witnessed the benefits of 3D printing, with the production time of a large component for the rear fuselage having dropped from two years to just two months. The company uses 3D printers from Renishaw and Stratasys, but 3D printed parts account for less than 1% of its current contribution to Typhoon aircraft.

The economic headwinds facing the aerospace industry are encouraging suppliers to look to new technologies to deliver operational efficiencies. 3D printing has the potential to improve operations, with components being printed on demand in-house but reducing demand for parts from the supply chain.

Developing a new fighter jet runs the risk of budget overruns and delays in delivery; BAE Systems is investing in numerous digital technologies to increase the probability that Tempest won’t be one those projects.

BAE Systems has been using additive manufacturing for over twenty years, primarily for rapid prototyping, and today usage is growing to include creating standard components for the Typhoon fighter aircraft.

Stratasys has been working with BAE Systems since 2006, and has been involved in creating space models, designing verification prototypes, and producing manufacturing tools such as jigs, fixtures, and end-use parts. Stratasys’ FDM Nylon 12CF material has enabled BAE to produce robust and lightweight repair and development tools on production lines. The company’s F900 production system has been installed at BAE System’s manufacturing site in Samlesbury, Lancashire, and is used to produce prototypes, tooling, and end-use parts for the company’s fighter jet aircraft. One notable example is flooring covers to go in the Typhoon’s cockpit, produced with Stratasys ABS material which is claimed to be lighter and quicker to manufacture than traditional manufacturing processes.

Renishaw designs and manufactures components in a variety of metals using metal powder bed fusion (or laser melting), whereby components can be printed directly from digital Computer-Aided Design (CAD) files. Despite the objective to use 3D printing for producing 30% of components, at the time of writing BAE Systems has not confirmed which components on the Tempest aircraft will be produced via 3D printers.

In contrast to Boeing, which abandoned the use of robotics for the drilling and fastening processes in producing its fuselages in 2019, BAE Systems has announced that 50% of the Tempest will be assembled by robots. The company’s Factory of the Future includes cobots and flexible robotic technologies in order to reduce the need for heavy lifting and long-lead tooling and the time it takes to switch over to another component to manufacture. Autonomous robots already deliver parts to workstations while the AMRC and Fairfield Control Systems have implemented a solution that recognizes operators and, in so doing, automatically delivers tailored instructions. Finally, BAE Systems will deploy a 5G network at its factory in Preston, Lancashire to test use cases such as robotic assembly, reconfigurable product assembly lines, and distributed and shared Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR).

COVID-19 has led to greater awareness that 3D printing and additive manufacturing can be tools not only for rapid prototyping but also for production needs. The technology provides manufacturers with increased resilience, allowing them to replace tools more easily and cost-effectively and maintain production operations in the event of supply chain disruptions. ABI Research forecasts that spend by aerospace and defense firms on additive manufacturing will grow rapidly, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 36.6% between 2018 and 2030, when it will surpass US$52 billion.

3D printing and additive manufacturing not only enable manufacturers to increase flexibility but also reduce dependency on suppliers. BAE sees the increased adoption of 3D printing as an opportunity to reshape its supply chain. However, the Combat Air sector directly employs more than 12,000 people across the United Kingdom and has a supply chain of over three thousand firms. This new approach to delivering the Tempest program is a potential threat to many traditional aerospace suppliers. It is noteworthy that trade unions haven’t been against the adoption of 3D printing and other digital technologies because the program will create many highly-skilled and specialist roles.

The external operating environment and commercial pressures will make many manufacturers revisit their thinking regarding additive manufacturing. While the Tempest program is an important case study demonstrating the rise of 3D printing for production applications, the onus will be on suppliers to focus on how their printers and printing technologies best meet client requirements and to not be over ambitious in regard to how the printers can meet production run requirements.