Three-nation funding allocation covers activities until end of 2027.
The trinational Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) has entered its next phase, with the award of an 18-month contract funding the completion of its advanced concept and assessment phase.
Announced on 3 July – two days after its signature – the new allocation of £4.6 billion ($6.1 billion) will support programme activities running from the start of this month until 31 December 2027. Work also will include “further joint detailed design and development”.
The new allocation follows an initial £686 million deal signed on behalf of joint partner nations Italy, Japan and the UK earlier this year, which ran until 30 June.
Both contracts were awarded by the managing GCAP Agency to prime contractor Edgewing: a joint venture between the nations’ Leonardo, Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement, and BAE Systems.
“With this long-term funding, the future of GCAP has never been more assured,” says GCAP Agency chief executive Masami Oka.
“The programme is vital for global security and defeating future threats, while sharing costs, technological advantages and creating highly skilled jobs in all three nations,” he adds.
Describing GCAP as a “disruptive new model of defence collaboration”, Edgewing chief executive Marco Zoff says: “three countries have come together to create a single engineering prime [contractor], working on behalf of our national industries, with a single empowered customer”.
Launched in 2022, the trinational project will deliver an operational sixth-generation stealth fighter for service from 2035. Edgewing and the GCAP Agency describe the future asset as to “have the capabilities required to secure advantage in the most demanding operating environments”.
Commenting on the new contract, the pair state: “This long-term investment reflects confidence, unity and forward momentum in this highly important defence partnership.”
The latest green light to advance the programme comes just days after the UK delivered a strong commitment to the activity within its Defence Investment Plan (DIP). Published on 30 June after months of delay, the document establishes a total UK spending allocation of £8.6 billion to GCAP until the end of this decade.
London has already spent £2.7 billion on the joint programme since 2024, with the DIP stating that the ongoing activity is “assuring the future of the UK’s aerospace industry, leveraging UK industrial strengths, private investment and international opportunities”.
Notably, GCAP’s latest advance comes less than a month after the Future Combat Air System project involving France, Germany and Spain was terminated due to industrial wrangling around a New Generation Fighter between Dassault Aviation and Airbus’s defence unit.
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