BAE Systems’ UK Combat Air Demonstrator closes in on final assembly

Construction of the UK Combat Air Demonstrator is officially underway at BAE Systems’ facilities in Samlesbury, Lancashire as it gathers pace towards its 2027 first flight deadline.

Shephard, alongside other defence media, visited the facilities ahead of the Farnborough Airshow to see the demonstrator aircraft currently in build. The UK Combat Air Demonstrator forms part of the wider industrial effort to develop manufacturing processes and digital engineering techniques to derisk the next-generation combat aircraft that will then be delivered through the tri-national Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP).

According to Tony Godbold, FCAS delivery director at BAE Systems, around two-thirds of the Combat Air Demonstrator has been produced, with the major unit manufacturing fully underway.

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The company is targeting the end of 2026 for final assembly of the UK Combat Air Demonstrator, with the fuselage transported from BAE facilities in Samlesbury to Warton, to be then ready for potential flight tests by the end of 2027. BAE Systems noted that specifics on flight tests would be confirmed closer to the time, subject to ongoing airworthiness and regulatory clearance.

The final rendered design was first unveiled in July 2025, it being the first crewed supersonic aircraft demonstrator to be built in the UK in 40 years since the Experimental Aircraft Programme – the technology demonstrator precursor to Typhoon.

Looking ahead at the next 12 months for the programme and delivery to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), Godbold said: “We really are at the business end of the programme. Structural testing…is imminent. As we move into the second half of the year…final assembly will start.”

Separate to the combat air demonstrator, the full international contract for GCAP is expected to be signed by the end of June 2026, the UK government confirmed on 13 June.

Edgewing, the industrial tri-national joint venture made up of BAE Systems, Mitsubishi and Leonardo, was awarded a £686 million (US$908 million) design and development contract to last until June, with the funding going towards design and engineering activities for the sixth-generation aircraft.

Digital tools aiding the construction

Digital tools and environments have been instrumental to BAE Systems’ efforts in constructing this demonstrator to meet its final assembly and first flight deadlines.

According to BAE, the units have been in build for between 12 and 18 months, aided using advanced digital manufacturing technologies, such as VR environments to design mockups, 3D printing, cobotics and digital twins.

Paul Wilde, platforms delivery director at BAE Systems, said that lead times for the construction of the demonstrator have been drastically reduced with the help of these digital tools, down from as long as four years to 12 months.

The plan for the Combat Air Demonstrator’s construction is to build one demonstrator and three sets of wings – the left, right and a structural test.

The company’s use of additive manufacturing techniques – also known as 3D printing – has been crucial for reducing construction times, according to Wilde. BAE Systems uses this method to build primary structural components of the demonstrator alongside traditional forging processes – something not before attempted on a to-scale demonstrator or combat aircraft. 

While the main focus of the UK Combat Air Demonstrator’s construction is on developing manufacturing processes for the GCAP programme, Godbold noted that BAE Systems’ work on this project had opened up “potential experimentation opportunities” for the company to consider at a later stage, taken from working on the supersonic testbed.

Shephard’s Farnborough International Airshow coverage is sponsored by MBDA

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Global Combat Air Programme [UK]