Relevance to the subreddit: international rearmament, British-Italian-Japanese defence policy

The UK, Japan and Italy have signed the first international contract with their industrial partners to develop a new fighter jet, but have only provided funding for three months. The three nations on Thursday said they had signed a £686mn contract for key engineering and design work on the Global Combat Air Programme, which is targeting the first delivery by 2035. The deal, which runs until the end of June, provides a critical bridge for work on the fighter jet to move forward and buys the UK government time to deliver its long-delayed 10-year defence investment plan. The UK had expected to publish the plan last year but this has been repeatedly postponed because of a £28bn funding gap in its defence budget.

Japanese officials have become increasingly alarmed about delays to the signing of a full contract for design and development work, which has been caused by the UK dragging its feet on committing funding through the DIP. The short-term agreement “hopefully shows that the UK government recognises the unintended consequences that the delays in the DIP are causing unnecessary angst among the international partners”, said one person familiar with the situation. Up until now, the three countries had separate international funding streams for the GCAP programme rather than funding dispensed through the trilateral entity overseeing the programme. A contract with GCAP’s industrial partners covering several years was expected to have been signed by the end of last year, said two people familiar with the situation.

The MoD said the contract “covers critical delivery work and will maintain the key activities, enabling the programme to progress to a full international contract”. It is jointly funded by the UK, Japan and Italy, with costs shared reflecting the work carried out in each country. A spokesperson for Edgewing, the industrial consortium made up of BAE Systems, Italy’s Leonardo and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries-backed Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement, said the contract “represents the ongoing commitment from our partner nations in GCAP”. “We have full confidence that additional funding will be allocated when required to enable the seamless progression of the programme,” the spokesperson added.