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The GCAP fighter’s long legs may appeal to Canada as Ottawa puts more resources into defending its vast territory.
As Italy, Japan and the UK accelerate development of the Global Combat Air Program, they are opening the door to another nation. During the Farnborough Airshow, the three governments approved Canada as the program’s first official observer.
The Global Combat Air Program’s (GCAP) first-mover status as the only sixth-generation combat aircraft program open for international collaboration means others are likely to follow in Ottawa’s footsteps.
- Edgewing is developing the manufacturing strategy
- Avio Aero, IHI and Rolls-Royce are finalizing demonstrator engine design
Under the observer arrangement, Canada has been invited into the room—but not to the table. Canadians will not have a decision-making role but will “gain direct insight and privileged access into GCAP, including capability development, industrial collaboration and long-term delivery plans,” UK Defense Secretary Wes Streeting said July 21.
Access to classified capability briefings will allow Canada to assess whether it wants to pursue a deeper role in the program and if its industry could contribute.
Ottawa’s decision to seek closer defense partnerships across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans comes amid increasingly strained relations with Washington and as the Trump administration imposed more tariffs on cross-border trade. In response, Canada has been pushing to diversify its security spending away from the U.S. to forge closer ties with new international partners. Ottawa is also considering acquiring Saab Gripens to complement its planned fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35s.
The three GCAP governments have built the program around international collaboration, but they are still determining how a nonpartner nation would play a role in the GCAP program should they want to become more than just an observer. The partner nations are unlikely to want to untangle the complex trilateral international treaty and risk the already ambitious Japanese timeline of bringing the GCAP aircraft into service in 2035.
The governments want to use GCAP to replace the Eurofighters flown by Italy and the UK as well as the Mitsubishi F-2s flown by Japan eventually, too.
Edgewing, the trinational joint venture of BAE Systems, Leonardo and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co., is the prime contractor responsible for delivering the program and working out the next steps. Edgewing has secured an 18-month, £4.6 billion ($6.1 billion) contract to finalize the concept and assessment phase that will provide the program with an outline design and a system specification, said Brooke Hoskins, Edgewing chief program officer. Completion of the phase would also give Edgewing “a detailed and exact figure” for the cost of the wider program, CEO Marco Zoff added.
A design and development phase will follow, and Edgewing is working to understand what this will entail, Hoskins told Aviation Week at the Farnborough Airshow.
The partners are also preparing a manufacturing strategy, based around Edgewing’s network of future global sites in Nagoya, Japan; Turin, Italy; and Warton, England. Due to how the trilateral program has been constructed, the sites will be staffed by people from each of the three countries.
Leonardo CEO Lorenzo Mariani suggested at Farnborough that each country should have a GCAP final assembly line. He added that the issue remains under discussion and depends on how many additional countries join the program and how many aircraft are ultimately required.
Manufacturing of the aircraft will be based around “logistics, workshare and security,” Hoskins said, noting that the latter is particularly crucial as security restrictions will govern what can be moved between countries and how. The aircraft’s size is already presenting logistical challenges. Hoskins said that the wings of the UK demonstrator aircraft have “challenged hangar doors” because of their size. Supporting the effort will be a secure collaboration network that allows engineers across the eight time zones separating London, Rome and Tokyo to work simultaneously on the same technical drawings rather than just sharing information.
Meanwhile, the trinational industry team developing the GCAP power and propulsion system is finalizing approval of the demonstrator engine design. Italy’s Avio Aero, Japan’s IHI Corp. and the UK’s Rolls-Royce have completed a series of design reviews supporting development of the engine demonstrator that will be used to gather critical data to refine the GCAP power and propulsion system. Together, the three companies said they completed 100 subscale component tests to support development of the demonstrator, which is planned to be based at Rolls-Royce’s facilities in Bristol, England.
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