The UK, Japan and Italy have agreed to jointly build one of the world’s most advanced fighter jets by 2035 in their first-ever trilateral military programme aimed at expanding their defence capabilities to address increasing security threats from China and Russia.
The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), is being developed at the same time as a rival Franco-German-Spanish project, which has been plagued by political and industrial tensions between the partners.
Under the accord agreed on Friday, the UK and Italy will merge their existing Future Combat Air programme, dubbed Tempest, with Japan’s own F-X project. The three nations will share the development costs, estimated at tens of billions of dollars, although a final decision on the exact contributions will be decided based on a joint assessment of costs and national budgets.