GCAP next-gen fighter joint venture likely to be running by this summer
A joint venture set to deliver a next-generation fighter jet for Japan, Britain and Italy is expected to be up and running by this summer, top officials from the three core companies involved in the project have told The Japan Times, with the business construct expecting to receive its first contract by the year's end.
'We are nearing completion of the standard regulatory process, which will then allow us to set up the joint venture,' Herman Claesen — managing director for future combat air systems at Britain's BAE Systems, one of the three main firms involved — said in an exclusive interview.
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, the new business — which will also include Italy's Leonardo and the Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co. (JAIEC), a joint venture launched last July between the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) — will be responsible for the industrial side of the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP).
Each of the firms will hold an equal 33.3% shareholding in the new company, which will initially be led by an Italian. The joint venture will be headquartered in the English town of Reading but will also feature joint teams working in each of the partner nations.
'Hopefully, over the summer, we'll be announcing the new company and more details around it,' Claesen said during this year's DSEI Japan defense exhibition in the city of Chiba.
The joint venture, he added, would then prepare to receive its first engineering contract from the GCAP International Government Organization (GIGO) set up last year to manage the multibillion-dollar project.
The future sixth-generation aircraft is intended to replace aging Air Self-Defense Force F-2 jets, as well as British and Italian Eurofighters, with the first units expected to enter service by 2035.
With the aircraft's conceptual design stage now complete, the project is now set to advance to the detailed design and development phases.
Sources familiar with GCAP, however, say that the program is not progressing as fast as originally expected, not just because of the regulatory approval process, but also because the parties involved appear to still be ironing out differences over workload distribution and access to intellectual property.
Just how much this will affect the envisaged 2035 entry-into-service date of the new supersonic aircraft is unclear.
Claesen said that while 2035 remains the target date, the project is 'incredibly challenging, and there's still a lot of analysis to be done, detailed work to be established.'
'We continuously evaluate how we are sitting against our 2035 targets,' he said. 'That hasn't finished yet.'
Kimito Nakae —president of the Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co., a joint venture launched last July between the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries — says three countries are in the process of coordinating where each other's strengths lie so that they can better distribute the workload going forward. |
Gabriel Dominguez
GCAP, which will also see the development and use of cutting-edge technology, marks the first time that Japan is cooperating with countries other than the United States to meet a major defense requirement.
Speaking to The Japan Times, JAIEC President Kimito Nakae said the three sides are in the process of coordinating where each other's strengths lie so that they can better distribute the workload going forward.
For Japan, which has not participated in multinational defense projects of this size, an important goal is to gain valuable experience and expertise for future programs, in not only the military sectors, but the civilian side as well.
'Japan's industry is not very familiar with the European standards and processes for developing aircraft, so we also see this as an opportunity to acquire knowledge and share it with related companies,' Nakae said.
Asked about why Japan will enter the new business construct with its own joint venture, Nakae said that JAIEC was established to strengthen supply chains while also contributing to the project with a much wider pool of experts from across the country's aerospace industry.
Building fighter jets involves a complex supply chain, meaning that GCAP will comprise more than one industry construct.
Several companies are set to come together as lead subsystem integrators in three broad domains. One such industrial construct — in charge of propulsion systems — will comprise Rolls-Royce, IHI and Avio Aero, while another featuring MBDA U.K., MBDA Italy and Mitsubishi Electric will join forces to develop the aircraft's future weapon systems.
Last but not least, Leonardo Electronics Italy, Leonardo U.K., Mitsubishi Electric and ELT Group will work together on developing integrated communications as well as a fully integrated sensing and nonkinetic effects capability that will help provide a more comprehensive situational awareness picture in order to maximize survivability.
Representatives from these four companies told The Japan Times that the aim is to develop and integrate cutting-edge technologies that not only allow the aircraft to sense a wide array of potential threats, but also to interlink with other platforms and assets in the battlespace, including drones and legacy systems, to provide commanders with a better overview of the situation and different options on how to best counter threats.
The GCAP platform 'will be a force multiplier for legacy platforms,' company officials said. The capacity to collect, receive and share data will be enhanced, with the new tech also being able to link up with earlier-generation equipment, be it naval, maritime, land or space and include drones, they added.
GCAP's capacity to manage information flows in a battle space will be 'significantly greater than anything that's been done before.'
The companies' representatives said that after cooperating over the past two years on work allocation, they now have 'a really clear understanding of how the work will flow going forward,' adding that they are now moving to finalize the commercial structure – a consortium – that will allow them to receive the first contracts from the joint venture.
Herman Claesen, managing director for future combat air systems at Britain's BAE Systems, one of the three main firms involved in building a next-generation fighter jet for Japan, Britain and Italy, poses next to a model of the aircraft at the DSEI Japan defense exhibition in the city of Chiba this week. |
Gabriel Dominguez
While the GCAP project is mainly centered around the aircraft, a number of companies have already begun working separately on adjunct systems such as drones and trainers, with MHI unveiling this year two uncrewed aircraft concepts, as well as the T-X trainer concept for future GCAP platform pilots. The company said it is also open to the possibility of exporting the trainer and collaborating with other firms.
The three partner governments are also considering whether to invite other countries to join, particularly Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has shown an interest in the multinational program, but there are also unconfirmed reports that Australia, Canada and India might be looking to participate.
No official information has emerged on future partnership plans, including which additional countries are being formally considered or what their exact role or contribution to GCAP would be. Experts say that any such decision is only likely to be made once the joint venture has been launched.
BAE Systems' Claesen said that when it comes to cooperating with other partners, the door is open. But ultimately, he said, it will be the choice of the three governments to decide who joins, how they join and under what circumstances.
'As the industry side, we will respond to what the governments want to do within that context,' Claesen said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kyodo News
6 hours ago
- Kyodo News
U.S. asked Japan to raise defense spending to 3.5% of GDP
KYODO NEWS - 8 minutes ago - 20:15 | All, Japan, World U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has asked Japan to raise its defense spending to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product, a request that will likely prompt Tokyo to call off a planned high-level meeting with Washington, a Japan-U.S. diplomatic source said Saturday. The request was made recently by Elbridge Colby, U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, the Financial Times has reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Colby, a seasoned strategist, had previously pressed Japan to increase its defense spending to 3 percent of its GDP. The increased demand will likely lead Japan to cancel a planned meeting of the countries' foreign and defense chiefs, which was scheduled in Washington before Japan's House of Councillors election, expected on July 20. The meeting would have been the first since Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Trump took office in October and January, respectively. Kyodo News reported in late May that Japan and the United States were considering holding the so-called two-plus-two security talks in Washington this summer. Japan and the United States had not formally said such talks, as held in July last year in Tokyo, would take place. In 2022, after Trump's first term, Japan decided to double its annual defense budget to 2 percent of GDP by 2027, a dramatic move in postwar security policy under the country's war-renouncing Constitution. But Trump continues to complain that the U.S.-Japan security treaty is one-sided, with his administration apparently planning to ask Tokyo to pay more for American troops based in the Japanese archipelago once bilateral negotiations over his tariffs proceed.
Japan Times
12 hours ago
- Japan Times
Toyota to raise U.S. auto prices by more than $200 from July
Toyota Motor will raise prices of some vehicles it sells in the U.S. by more than $200 starting next month. Some Toyota- and Lexus-branded models will see their prices raised by an average of $270 and $208, respectively, Nobu Sunaga, a spokesman for the Japanese carmaker, said in an email on Saturday. The move is a part of a regular revision and new prices are determined based on factors including market conditions and competition, he said, without giving more details. The revision comes after Mitsubishi Motors announced raising the U.S. prices for three models this month, also citing a regular adjustment to factor in inflation. Japanese carmakers rely heavily on imports to supply the U.S. market, and have been grappling with the fallout of President Donald Trump's tariffs on imported cars and parts. Kyodo News reported Toyota's price hike earlier.
Japan Times
12 hours ago
- Japan Times
Upper House begins discussions on gasoline tax bill
The Upper House began discussions on an opposition-sponsored gasoline tax cut bill on Saturday, a day before the ordinary session of parliament ends Sunday. The opposition camp is demanding that the bill be put to a vote in the Upper House Committee on Financial Affairs and then in the full chamber by the end of Saturday, with an eye on the upcoming Upper House election, expected to take place on July 20. However, Junichi Ishii, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's parliamentary affairs chief in the Upper House, told Yoshitaka Saito, his counterpart from the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, at a meeting Saturday that the bill does not deserve a vote. The bill to abolish the provisional gasoline tax rate, effective July 1, was jointly submitted by the CDP and six other opposition parties earlier this month. On Friday, it passed the Lower House, where the LDP-Komeito coalition lacks a majority. There is little chance that the bill will pass the Upper House, where the ruling coalition holds a majority.
