A very long time ago, WIWOL 1970, a delegation from ‘IWI Towers’ visited Warton to discuss the future of air defence fighters.
The ‘young’ BAe boffins were thinking far beyond what might be reasonably imagined, considering without constraint of what is, or technology, weapons, history, strategy, etc; the discussion was about what could be, what might be achieved by our side and the other one.
Some of those ideas emerged in Tornado ADV, but most as far as can be established relate to Typhoon, some 40 yrs later. I fear, but don’t know, that few if any of the military (I speak for myself) were able to think in this way, or had sufficient time in post to develop skills or evolutionary understanding.
The skills in this are unconstrained thought, ability to consider what could be, and the wider range of viewpoints, without constraint of time.
Thus the contract is more about funding these lines of thought for the future opposed to anything real.