Britain and Italy in the final, Germany and France out
Yes, the headline is in keeping with the spirit of the moment—football, even though we're talking about matters far removed from kicking a ball around. But it turns out that Germany, France, Spain, and Belgium (which wisely abandoned the project early on) weren't able to join the sixth-generation fighter project, while Britain, Italy, and Japan aren't exactly flying, but they're certainly moving along.
GCAP, the agency behind the overall aircraft project, has officially awarded a £4,6 billion ($6,1 billion) international contract to industrial joint venture Edgewing for the next 18 months of development as part of the Global Combat Air programme.
The development package, jointly funded by the UK, Italy, and Japan, ensures long-term funding stability, enabling the creation of the aircraft's primary configuration and completion of its basic engineering design. At this stage, the trilateral initiative moves from preliminary program definition to full-scale technical definition, ahead of the planned production of prototypes and entry into service in 2035.
The 18-month agreement replaces a temporary bridge contract worth £686 million and aligns with the UK's recently approved £8,6 billion commitment under the four-year Defence Investment Plan. According to the funded engineering project, teams are required to validate the structural architecture, tooling, and components that define the design, integrate advanced powertrains, and refine the sixth-generation fighter's internal weapons bay and fuel tanks. There's plenty of work to do.
On July 3, 2026, GCAP awarded Edgewing a contract to conduct development work under the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), marking the transition from the initial program phase to full-scale design and development of the aircraft.
The amount, equivalent to approximately $6,14 billion or €5,37 billion, was awarded on top of a £686 million contract signed in April 2026 and just days after the UK approved £8,6 billion in GCAP funding over the next four years under its Defence Investment Plan.
The programme, which involves the UK, Italy and Japan on an equal footing, aims to create an operational sixth-generation fighter by 2035, which will replace the British and Italian Eurofighter Typhoon, as well as the Japanese Mitsubishi F-2.
The new contract will enable engineering teams in all three countries to focus on completing the GCAP baseline design, validating key subsystems, and preparing the program for prototype production by the end of the decade. The contract, awarded in July, replaces a £686 million interim agreement signed in April 2026 after repeated delays to the UK's Defence Investment Plan created short-term funding uncertainty.
In short, the previous contract did not allow for a slowdown in the pace of engineering work, but it was deliberately limited to releasing money until political approval for British funding was obtained.
The £4,6 billion package fundamentally changes the GCAP program, as it provides funding for the completion of key design work and the transformation of initial concepts into a detailed, implementable aircraft design across all project areas. Over the next 18 months, engineers must now validate the aircraft's basic configuration, establish common operational requirements for the three partner air forces, validate the structural architecture, integrate the powerplants and control systems, refine the software architecture, and finalize the engineering framework that will enable the production of a prototype.
Decisions made during this period will determine, for example, the allowable weight gain, fuel capacity, internal weapons bay dimensions, cooling system capacity, power generation requirements, and the aircraft's upgrade potential for decades after it enters service.
Unlike previous multinational European fighter programs, under GCAP, engineering authority is concentrated in a single international company, rather than being distributed among national prime contractors. Edgewing is jointly owned by BAE Systems, Leonardo, and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co. (JAIEC), with each company holding a 33,3% stake. Headquartered in Reading, UK, the company is simultaneously establishing engineering organizations in the UK, Italy, and Japan, while retaining full responsibility for aircraft design, certification, airworthiness, and overall program integration throughout the fighter's service life.
This structure reduces the number of parallel national approval chains and allows the GCAP Agency to have a single industrial partner responsible for configuration management, instead of three separate national bodies, as was the case in the parallel project between Germany, France, and others. Furthermore, it allows design changes, software development, and subsystem integration to be managed within a single engineering framework, rather than being independently approved by multiple national industrial teams, a persistent challenge in previous multinational combat aircraft programs.
And most importantly, there won't be a "swan, crayfish, and pike" situation, as was the case with that European project, when France's exorbitant ambitions and Germany's unwillingness to compromise effectively ruined the project.
Since the GCAP program was announced in December 2022, the aircraft design itself has undergone significant changes. Early concept sketches featured a modified swept-delta design, while the current concept utilizes a much larger tailless delta wing with increased internal volume.
BAE Systems previously stated that the aircraft would be three to four meters longer than the Eurofighter Typhoon, indicating significantly larger internal fuel tanks, larger internal weapons bays, and significantly more space for onboard equipment. The larger airframe also meets the significantly higher power, thermal, and computing requirements of sixth-generation aircraft. Unlike fourth-generation fighters, these advanced combat aircraft must generate enough electrical power to simultaneously support an active electronically scanned array radar, distributed sensors, electronic warfare systems, secure communications, high-power onboard computing systems, and artificial intelligence processing, all while maintaining a low observable profile.
Here, it's definitely worth looking at the engines, as they directly supply the power to all of these systems. Something tells me Rolls-Royce will be able to solve this problem, but it won't be an easy one.
The enlarged wing also increases internal fuel capacity, allowing for increased range and endurance without the use of external fuel tanks, which reduce radar signature. The GCAP fighter is being developed as a central combat aircraft within a broader combat system. aviation systems, rather than as a standalone fighter designed to replace existing aircraft on a one-to-one basis. The aircraft is expected to operate alongside the F-35, Eurofighter Typhoon, autonomous combat aircraft, and unmanned systems commonly referred to as "loyal wingmen."
The aircraft will not only carry weapons but also serve as an airborne command and control center, capable of receiving, processing, and distributing combat information between various air, ground, sea, and space assets. Someone clearly observed the use of Russian MiG-31BMs and drew some very wise conclusions.
Artificial intelligence is designed to assist pilots in integrating data from multiple sensors, prioritizing threats, supporting decision-making and mission management, and reducing crew workload during high-intensity operations. Therefore, when developing GCAPs, special attention is paid to computing architecture, software, and secure networks, rather than aerodynamic performance. This can be both an aircraft's strength and its weakness. The debate over whether stealth or super-maneuverability is superior continues, but the answers can only be found in modern conflicts involving aircraft.
Since the aircraft is expected to operate in environments with strong electromagnetic radiation, which reduces communication quality, an onboard computing system is required that will allow the aircraft to continue searching for targets and coordinate the operations of unmanned aerial vehicles even when disconnected from external command networks. To ensure this, several multinational industrial consortiums are developing the fighter's core subsystems in parallel with the Edgewing.
The GCAP Electronics Evolution (G2E) consortium is responsible for an integrated architecture of detection, communications, and non-kinetic effects systems that will integrate radar, electronic support systems, electronic countermeasures, communications, and data fusion into a single system. This architecture is designed to process significantly larger volumes of information than current-generation fighters and distribute this data across a wider combat network.
A separate consortium, including Rolls-Royce, Avio Aero, and IHI, is developing the powerplant. The new engine must not only provide higher thrust but also generate significantly more electrical energy than existing fighter jet engines, enabling it to support advanced sensors, electronic warfare systems, onboard computing systems, and other electronic devices during long-duration missions.
Both programs are being developed in shared digital engineering environments, which allow multinational engineering teams to work simultaneously on common digital models, rather than exchanging separate national developments at later stages.
The GCAP program is also transforming the manufacturing process used in fighter jet design and production. Digital engineering, cloud-based collaborative development environments, robotics, additive manufacturing, digital twins, and augmented reality are being integrated into the development process to reduce design timelines, improve validation, and mitigate production risks before equipment is manufactured. Rather than separating work into virtually independent national production lines, GCAP aims to implement unified engineering standards and unified configuration control across the British, Italian, and Japanese industries.
The approach itself differs sharply from that attempted by the Germans and French. It's clear that Spain and Belgium contributed minimal development work to the project, with the junior partners primarily responsible for funding the development. But the fact that France was working on its own aircraft, a carrier-based aircraft with nuclear capability, is significant. weapon, while Germany wanted to see a universal fighter-bomber on land, ultimately led to each side taking (or rather, not putting on the table) their developments and retreating into the fog.
In the case of the triumvirate of Great Britain, Italy, and Japan, there's no such disarray; on the contrary, the countries are playing a one-sided game, as expected. That is, they're building one plane for everyone.
The UK's £8,6 billion commitment supports the programme, which currently supports approximately 4500 jobs across the UK and involves approximately 600 UK suppliers, while Italy and Japan continue to invest in their aerospace and defence sectors. The aircraft's development goals include increased range, improved endurance, a significant increase in onboard electrical power generation, and sufficient robustness to accommodate future sensors, electronic warfare systems, and software upgrades during its service life, which is expected to extend well beyond mid-century. Although GCAP currently comprises only three founding partners, expansion is being considered, as increased production volumes will reduce average development costs and improve export prospects.
And, it should be noted, the program is already attracting interest around the world, especially in light of the German-French fiasco. And there are already those who want to join this program and ultimately acquire the aircraft of the future.
But it's not that simple. Joining the program requires unanimous approval from the UK, Italy, and Japan, in accordance with the program's governance mechanisms.
Saudi Arabia is seeking to participate in the program beginning in 2023, hoping for industrial cooperation, technology transfer, and the development of its own aerospace industry in line with Vision 2030. It also hopes to make a significant contribution to the program's funding and increase production volume. This is truly the most significant contribution the country can make.
Japan's concerns about export controls, protection of sensitive technologies, and political considerations have so far prevented Saudi Arabia from joining the program.
Canada had been considering participating as an observer as a possible route to acquiring sixth-generation technology after acquiring the F-35A, while.
Germany has been periodically considered as a possible candidate following repeated industrial disputes within the Franco-German-Spanish FCAS program over work allocation, intellectual property rights, and industrial leadership between Dassault Aviation and Airbus Defence and Space. And perhaps Germany could be the party to be included in the project. After all, it still has many strong manufacturers in both the aviation and weapons industries.
Australia, India, Portugal, Poland, and Sweden also maintained dialogue on possible future cooperation. Sweden is more dubious, deciding to pursue its own path.
Additional participants would allow R&D costs to be spread across a larger number of companies and improve export competitiveness, but would also introduce new operational requirements, industrial disputes, export control obligations, and management complexities that could slow the program's implementation.
The GCAP program was launched in December 2022, when the UK's Tempest and Japan's FX programs merged, and Italy, which had no previous commitments, joined as an equal partner in the joint effort to develop a sixth-generation fighter. Government oversight is now provided through the GCAP Agency, with Edgewing serving as the prime contractor responsible for the aircraft's design and long-term technical support. The current £4,6 billion contract runs until early 2028 and covers the completion of concept development and detailed design work prior to prototype production.
Demonstration programs continue independently of the design bureaus' work, while power plants, sensors, communications equipment, digital control systems, and advanced manufacturing technologies undergo parallel development and testing.
The fighter is designed to perform air superiority missions, conduct long-range strikes, perform air command and control functions within the broader combat air architecture, integrate with unmanned combat aerial vehicles, operate in controlled electromagnetic environments, and conduct multi-domain network missions.
Achieving these capabilities by 2035 will depend on maintaining synchronized funding, stable programme management, a disciplined approach to configuration management, and robust industrial integration in the UK, Italy and Japan throughout the remaining stages of development.
It's already clear that this team is on a path that could lead to a real result, which we'll consider a prototype flight. Yes, a prototype flight doesn't guarantee serial production and acceptance into service. story knows hundreds of examples, but nevertheless this will be a very logical result.
Several years ago, after the launch of two projects, we explored the possibilities, and, admittedly, the Germany-France-Spain triumvirate was considered more viable. After all, Dassault for some and Airbus for others—that's a strong point. Especially since France and Germany had been building their own aircraft for a long time. But it was precisely this independence, reinforced by Mirages and Rafales on one side and Tornados and Typhoons on the other, that gave rise to numerous inconsistencies, which is why the triumvirate collapsed. Everyone (or almost everyone) proved too independent.
But the less ambitious (and, in fact, capricious) Great Britain, Italy, and Japan managed what their more decorated rivals failed to achieve. They could even be said to have reached the final.
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