UK, Italy, Japan to Team Up to Create Sixth-Generation Fighter Jet

The UK, Italy, and Japan have awarded a $6.14 billion contract to the joint venture Edgewing to develop a sixth-generation fighter jet.The contract, signed on July 3, is a milestone for the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), a project first launched in 2022, which has a target of bringing into service a new fighter jet by 2035.The Edgewing jet would replace Japan’s retiring F-2s, which were jointly developed with the United States, and the Eurofighter Typhoons, which the UK and Italy created, along with Germany and Spain.Japan needs a sixth-generation fighter jet to combat aerial and naval threats from China and North Korea, while the UK and Italy want it to counter Russia.The announcement comes a month after France and Germany called off a proposed joint bid to build a fighter jet, citing industrial rivalries.Edgewing is a joint venture of the UK’s BAE Systems, Italy’s Leonardo, and ​Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement (JAIEC), a company formed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.Canada ‘Most Interested’Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said on June 23 that they were open to allowing other countries to join the GCAP project, which would enable cost sharing.“The country most interested at the moment seems to be Canada as an observer. We are fully open to it,” Crosetto said. “If Germany or other countries, or Saudi Arabia, were to come in, we would be completely willing, because the more there are, the greater the chances of creating something and bringing down costs.”NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (C) sits in the cockpit of an F-2 fighter plane during an inspection at the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force Iruma Air Base in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, on Jan. 31, 2023. Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty ImagesIt is common for nations to work together on large military projects.The Typhoon fighter jet—which first came into service between 2003 and 2005—emerged from the Eurofighter program, a co-operation between BAE, Airbus, and Leonardo.Turkey agreed to buy 20 new Eurofighter Typhoons from the UK for $10.7 billion in October 2025.On July 3, GCAP Agency Chief Executive Masami Oka said in a statement that he was delighted to sign the contract with Edgewing on behalf of Japan, Italy, and the UK.“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,” Oka said. “With this long-term funding, the future of GCAP has never been more assured.”The announcement comes as members of the NATO alliance prepare to meet in the Turkish capital, Ankara, for a summit.Last week, the UK published a new Defence Investment Plan (DIP), and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK would spend “almost 80 billion pounds [$105.8 billion]” per year on defense by 2029.On June 25, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said he expected members to announce billions of dollars in extra defense spending before or during the alliance’s summit on July 7 and July 8.British Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard said in a July 3 statement that GCAP would give Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots a cutting-edge stealth fighter jet.New Jet Would Boost UK Jobs“This milestone strengthens our partnership with international allies, supports thousands of highly skilled jobs across the UK, and will give the RAF the tools they need to keep the UK safe,” Pollard said.He added that the new jet that GCAP and Edgewing were developing would work alongside the RAF’s existing fleet of Typhoons, F-35s, and drones.In last week’s DIP, the UK committed 1.1 billion pounds ($1.47 billion) to upgrade and sustain the RAF’s Typhoons into the 2040s, and 2.2 billion pounds ($2.93 billion) to purchase new F-35s from the United States.Last month, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ‌and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project on the sidelines of an EU–Western Balkans summit in Montenegro.Macron launched the FCAS project with then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2017. He and Merz had tried for months to salvage it and overcome differences between the two main partners, Airbus and Dassault.They agreed on June 8 to curtail work on the 100 billion euros ($116 billion) project.Reuters contributed to this report.