The programme to deliver Britain\u2019s next-generation fighter jet has been awarded a \u00a34.6 billion contract, the second joint international contract placed under the Global Combat Air Programme between the UK, Italy and Japan, the GCAP Agency and Edgewing have announced.<\/p>\n
The 18-month contract, awarded by the GCAP Agency, which manages the programme on behalf of the three governments, to Edgewing, the trinational prime contractor and design authority for the aircraft, will enable completion of the advanced concept and assessment phase and further joint detailed design and development. It runs from 1 July 2026 to 31 December 2027 and is jointly funded by the three nations, following an initial \u00a3686 million contract placed in April 2026.<\/p>\n
GCAP, launched in 2022, aims to deliver a next-generation stealth fighter by 2035, replacing the Typhoon in RAF service and Japan\u2019s F-2 fleet. Edgewing, the joint venture established a year ago by BAE Systems, Leonardo and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co, is headquartered in the UK and ramping up to operate in all three nations, and will remain the design authority throughout the life of the aircraft. Wider delivery is supported by trinational industrial consortia, including the GCAP Electronics Evolution grouping developing the aircraft\u2019s sensing and communications system and the power and propulsion consortium working on the engine intended to give the jet extended range and persistence.<\/p>\n
Masami Oka, GCAP Agency Chief Executive, said: \u201cI am delighted to sign this international contract on behalf of the three GCAP nations. It will enable the GCAP Agency and Edgewing to continue making huge progress in all areas of delivery. 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. With this long-term funding, the future of GCAP has never been more assured.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marco Zoff, Edgewing Chief Executive Officer, said the contract \u201crepresents the trust placed in us by all three nations and our GCAP Agency partners, trust fostered by the rapid progress made under the first international contract.\u201d He added: \u201cThis momentum is being driven by our disruptive new model of defence collaboration: the first time that three countries have come together to create a single engineering prime, working on behalf of our national industries, with a single empowered customer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The award follows confirmation in this week\u2019s Defence Investment Plan of \u00a38.6 billion in UK funding for GCAP over the next four years, which a senior defence official said would carry the project through its concept and into its design phases alongside Japan and Italy. The programme is overseen by the GCAP International Government Organisation, established in 2024, whose steering committee directs the GCAP Agency from its headquarters in Reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The programme to deliver Britain\u2019s next-generation fighter jet has been awarded a \u00a34.6 billion contract, the second joint…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-671998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}