A photo taken July 21, 2024 of a new GCAP concept design is displayed at the Farnborough International Airshow. (BAE Systems)
Updated at 7/22/2024 at 08:53 am ET to include additional comments from GCAP industry partners.
FARNBOROUGH AIR SHOW — Industry partners involved in the British, Italian and Japanese Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) have unveiled a new concept of the future crewed fighter jet, designed around a conventional delta wing shape, giving increased wingspan compared to previous iterations.
The UK’s BAE Systems said the concept, developed in collaboration with Italy’s Leonardo and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, “features a much more evolved design,” distinguished by the wingspan alteration, to deliver improved aerodynamics.
The three industry partners are tied into a collaboration agreement covering design and development of the future combat aircraft, supported by a variety of “innovative digital tools and techniques, including computer based modelling and virtual reality,” added BAE in a Sunday statement.
The apparent industrial progress to advance the aircraft design contrasts with political uncertainty hanging over the trilateral effort in recent days, after a UK lawmaker from the new Labour government declined to offer a long term commitment to GCAP, on grounds that taking a position could “pre-judge” or unfairly interfere with the newly commissioned Strategic Defence Review (SDR). London has said it will reveal the results of the review, which will take stock of British strategic priorities and equipment needs, by the “first half of 2025.”
Herman Claesen, managing director of Future Combat Air Systems at BAE Systems told reporters today that the company must “respect the fact that the government has called an SDR and wants to look at the priorities and everything that goes with it.”
Claesen said he spoke directly with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who “reiterated” a message from the opening of the Farnborough Air Show, that GCAP is “very important” for London.
“I think the fact that he [Starmer] came out here, wants to see the aircraft, wants to talk to people about it, gives another indication that it is a very key strategic program to the UK,” added Claesan. “We stand by to support the government on their process.”
He suggested that the financial investment from the UK MoD to sustain the multimillion effort is on solid ground, explaining, “I have all the funding today that is needed to support the program in the same way as my colleagues [from Leonardo and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries] have described.”
The GCAP fighter jet is planned to replace British and Italian Eurofighter Typhoons as well as Japanese F-2s, with a service entry date of 2035. It is also expected to operate alongside autonomous collaborative platforms or adjunct aircraft, similar to US Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft. Industry partners are also committed to flying a crewed, supersonic and low observable aircraft demonstrator within four years.
More imminently, they are scheduled to launch the development phase of the future fighter jet next year, with political representatives of the partner nations also due to meet this week. Both political and Industry officials have consistently said that future exports of the aircraft remain a key priority. Saudi Arabia has also expressed strong interest in becoming a fourth national partner, but nothing concrete has emerged since the UK indicated in September that no “definitive timeline” is in play to potentially welcome Riyadh.
“We are developing an industry construct that is open for other [international manufacturing] partners,” Guglielmo Maviglia, chief GCAP programme officer at Leonardo, told reporters today. “Partners are important because of course, the export market is relevant for the business case.”
A senior RAF spokesperson told journalists earlier this week that they had no comment to make on the status of a combat air feasibility study between Saudi Arabia and the UK, which Richard Berthon, director of UK future combat air, at the British Ministry of Defence, told Breaking Defense in September 2023 was necessary so a “maturity of understanding” could be developed between London and Riyadh. At that time, the study was expected to wrap at the earliest in the first quarter of this year.
All GCAP industry partners are “steaming ahead” with design activities of the next generation fighter, said Claesen, adding that the next engineering milestone is a systems requirements review, directly supporting planning for the launch of the development phase.
Industry teams across the UK, Italy and Japan have all been provided with “one requirement set” and are working to it accordingly, Claesen noted.
He also shared that GCAP industrial planning has not been influenced by the US Air Force’s recent decision to reconsider the path ahead for its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) sixth generation program.
“I have all the funding today that is needed to support the program,” said Claesen, echoing the perspective of Italian and Japanese
Sunday’s joint statement comes months after what appeared to be a rift between industry partners spilled into public view. In March Roberto Cingolani, Leonardo CEO, claimed then that the UK had not shared plans related to its approach to the system of systems-type aircraft and technology, including how GCAP fighter jets will eventually link and interconnect with adjunct aircraft and artificial intelligence (AI) capable combat cloud networks to support multi-domain operations.
