The Royal Air Force is launching their next-generation fight incorporating incredible sci-fi weapons systems alongside its conventional missile load out.

The Bae Tempest is the RAF’s next-gen fighter. It is expected to enter service in 2035 and remain part of the UK’s airborne arsenal until the end of the century.

As well as possessing its own "swarm" of accompanying drones the revolutionary fighter will incorporate directed energy weapons – lasers – to block incoming missiles and potentially for close-quarters dogfighting with enemy aircraft.

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The "death ray" concept is already close to becoming a reality. The US Air Force will shortly begin testing a laser that will be mounted on an F-15.

“We have got tests starting this summer and the flight tests next summer,” Jeff Stanley, deputy assistant secretary of the US Air Force for science, technology and engineering, told reporters.

“There are still some technical challenges we have to overcome, mainly size, weight, power.”

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And it's in power generation that the Tempest has its biggest advantage.

The huge demand for electrical power on board modern combat aircraft represents a real challenge for airframe designers who are trying to maintain a sleek, stealthy profile.

Rolls Royce, the company that will be making the Tempest’s power plant, has the answer. A world-beating energy generator that's years ahead of anything else in the sky.

In an announcement today, the company said: “Before the launch of the Tempest programme, Rolls-Royce had already started to address the demands of the future.

“Back in 2014, the company took on the challenge of designing an electrical starter generator that was fully embedded in the core of a gas turbine engine, now known as the Embedded Electrical Starter Generator or E2SG demonstrator programme.”

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Conrad Banks, Chief Engineer for Future Programmes at Rolls-Royce, added:

“The electrical embedded starter-generator will save space and provide the large amount of electrical power required by future fighters.

"Existing aircraft engines generate power through a gearbox underneath the engine, which drives a generator. In addition to adding moving parts and complexity, the space required outside the engine for the gearbox and generator makes the airframe larger, which is undesirable in a stealthy platform.”

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The Tempest, which shares a name with the last and most advanced of the RAF's prop-powered fighters of World War 2, is set to be the first of a new breed of advanced combat aircraft that can fly with or without a pilot as needed.

While the UK is beginning to lag behind its rivals in overall military might, it's nevertheless leading the way with futuristic weapons technology.

• HMS Queen Elizabeth
• Royal Navy
• World War 2
• Hypersonic
• Space
• Science
• Royal Air Force

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