GCAP remains bright spot in UK rearmament efforts as international prospects widen
The three national partners are developing the aircraft under the Edgewing joint venture. (Image: BAE Systems)
Funding for the programme is secure – for now – while future opportunities to join Japan, Italy and the UK could tempt other Western partners to join the joint fighter development project.
Canada is expected to announce its intent to join the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) as an observer at this week’s Farnborough International Airshow, sources told media outlet Politico last week. While officials have so far neither confirmed nor denied this development, it would be another sign that GCAP is seen as increasingly viable by defence stakeholders, despite past fears about the complexity of coordinating a trilateral fighter jet programme between Italy, Japan and the UK.
Months of uncertainty over what funding commitments the UK would make in its Defence Investment Plan (DIP) had threatened to collapse GCAP the way France and Germany’s
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