BAE Systems, Leonardo and JAIEC reached an agreement to form a new company under a business joint venture for the GCAP, building on the trilateral cooperation started in 2022.
The three national industry leads participating to the Global Combat Aircraft Programme (GCAP), BAE Systems, Leonardo and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co (JAIEC), have reached an agreement to form a new company under a business joint venture and continue working on the program. The agreement builds on the strong trilateral government, defense and industrial cooperation between the U.K., Italy, and Japan since the GCAP was established in Dec. 2022 and its collaboration and development agreements both signed in late 2023.
“The new joint venture will be accountable for the design, development and delivery of the next generation combat aircraft and will remain the design authority for GCAP for the life of the product, which is expected to go out beyond 2070,” the companies said in a statement. As the program is based on the principle of equal sharing, the three main contractors will each hold a 33.3% share of the company.
The #GCAP industry partners – @BAESystemsplc 🇬🇧, @Leonardo_live 🇮🇹 & JAIEC 🇯🇵 – have reached a landmark agreement to form a business joint venture that will work alongside the GCAP International Government Organisation to deliver the next generation of combat aircraft.✈️ pic.twitter.com/DTb1WqXl2h
— GlobalCombatAir (@GlobalCombatAir) December 13, 2024
The firm will be based in London, with the establishment date currently set for mid-2025. The company will initially have an Italian CEO, with operations and joint teams working in each of the partner nations. The company being based in the U.K. will allow for “maximum alignment and collaboration” with the GIGO (GCAP International Government Organization), also based in the U.K.
According to Roberto Cingolani, the Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Leonardo, “This partnership not only enhances our technological capabilities but also reinforces our commitment to global security and innovation.”
Furthermore, the Chief Executive of BAE Systems Charles Woodburn commented that “The new business will bring together the significant strengths and expertise of the companies involved to create an innovative organisation that will lead the way in developing a next generation combat air system, creating long-term, high value and skilled jobs across the partner nations for decades to come.”
The formation of a joint company in order to collaboratively produce new aircraft is in line with previous European aircraft development projects – namely SEPECAT, which produced the Jaguar, Panavia, which produced the Tornado, and most recently Eurofighter, who still produce the Typhoon combat aircraft. Although the name of the company for GCAP has not been yet announced, we can expect it to be something iconic like SEPECAT, Panavia or Eurofighter.
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The collaboration between the three companies will bring together their combined strengths and expertise. Although the individual companies have not serially produced their own aircraft, they have considerable experience in the field of advanced combat aircraft. In fact, Leonardo and BAE Systems are significant contributors to the U.S. F-35 program and manufacture certain parts of the jet, with the former also assembling the jets at its Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) facility. Similarly, MHI (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries), under JAIEC, operates another FACO and also has experience developing the X-2 Shinshin stealth fighter demonstrator.
The GCAP
The GCAP was established in December 2022, with a goal of developing a sixth-generation fighter plane for the three collaborating nations, the UK, Italy, and Japan. The new aircraft will replace the Typhoons in service in the U.K. and in Italy, as well as the F-2s in service in Japan, complementing the F-35s in service in all three countries.
The program aims to deliver the capability to defeat the future threats with a targeted in-service date of 2035. Under GCAP, the three partner nations have agreed to pool their resources together, collaborating to produce a single common fighter jet that will go into service with the air arm of each country. The aircraft is expected to have a long service life, with an estimate of it still being active in the 2070s.
Previously, Japan had committed to building an indigenous F-X fighter, while the U.K. and Italy were collaborating on the Tempest fighter. Now that Japan has joined the coalition, the program is known as GCAP. A demonstrator airframe is expected to have its first flight sometime near the end of this decade.
The design of the aircraft, whose 1:1 mockup appeared at Farnborough International Airshow earlier this year, seems to have a heavy focus on stealth, with a large, streamlined cropped delta wing and an angular, faceted design.
The aircraft will be powered by two new engines, which will be jointly developed by Rolls-Royce (UK), IHI (Japan), and Avio Aero (Italy), while Leonardo (Italy and UK), Mitsubishi Electric (Japan), and ELT Group (Italy) are in charge of developing its onboard sensors.
According to BAE Systems, the aircraft will have an “advanced intelligent weapons system, software-driven interactive cockpit, integrated sensors and a powerful next generation radar capable of providing 10,000 times more data than current systems, giving it a battle-winning advantage.”
The aircraft’s sensors and systems have started testing on the Excalibur, a 757-based test airframe that was recently seen with its first modifications. It is a rough equivalent to the US’ Catfish, also a modified 757 passenger aircraft, which tests the systems for F-22 fighter jets.
