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The UK, Japan and Italy have agreed to jointly build one of the world’s most advanced fighter jets by 2035 in their first trilateral military program aimed at expanding their defense capabilities to meet rising security threats from China and Russia.
The Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), being developed at the same time as a rival Franco-German-Spanish project, was beset by political and industrial tensions between the partners.
Under the deal agreed on Friday, the UK and Italy will merge their existing Future Combat Air programme, dubbed Tempest, with Japan’s own FX project. The three nations will share development costs, estimated at billions of dollars, although the final decision on specific contributions will be based on a joint assessment of costs and national budgets.
“Working together in a spirit of equal partnership, we are sharing the costs and benefits of this investment in our people and technologies,” the leaders of the three nations said in a joint statement. “Importantly, this program will support the sovereign capacity of all three countries to design, deliver and upgrade sophisticated combat air capabilities, well into the future.”
The deal, which required years of negotiations, marks an unprecedented departure for Japan. It has historically worked exclusively with US partners for major military equipment but has sought closer security ties with various allies to prepare for the possibility of war with China over Taiwan.
The fighter jets are also part of Japan’s growing defense ambitions, and this week Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the government plans to set aside ¥43tn ($315bn) for its five-year defense budget, a 57 percent increase from the previous period.
People with direct knowledge of the discussions said Tokyo’s decision to partner with the UK and Italy was prompted by growing concerns in government and industry that its domestic defense sector would not be able to maintain its ability to develop modern military equipment and weapons by relying solely on it. The US
Defense Ministry officials said Japan would continue to work closely with the US, stressing that its choice of the UK and Italy as partners was made only because Washington did not have the same timeline for developing its next fighter jet.
“The United States supports Japan’s security and defense cooperation with like-minded allies and partners,” the US Department of Defense said in a joint statement with Japan’s Defense Ministry.
Britain’s cooperation with Italy and Japan was hailed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday as proof that “the security of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions is inseparable”.
The UK wants to strengthen ties with the Pacific region, particularly with the so-called OCAS initiative in which London, Washington and Canberra agreed to collaborate on nuclear-powered submarine technology.
However, the UK’s foreign policy and defense doctrine – known as the “integrated review” and due to be published in 2021 – is being rewritten by Downing Street to reflect the challenges thrown up by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The original paper was billed as Britain’s “pivot to the Pacific”, but the Ukraine conflict makes it possible that the revised paper represents something of a return to Europe. The UK has committed £2bn to the Tempest programme, which is key to retaining British sovereign fighter air skills and jobs, once the Eurofighter Typhoon is out of service, over an initial four-year period.
The new program will be led by each country’s national defense champion: BAE Systems in the UK, Leonardo in Italy and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan. The three companies are already collaborating on several critical areas, including propulsion and radar technology.
The three countries will now work together to establish a concept for the main fighter – which they said will have “advanced sensors, sophisticated weapons and [an] Innovative Data System” – with the aim of starting the development phase in 2024.
Both the UK and Japan have said the door is open for others to join the programme.
It is not yet clear whether Sweden, which has had a minor involvement since 2019, wants to deepen its participation.
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