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Here’s how Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom accelerate on the Gcap (Global Combat Air Programme)

Here's how Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom accelerate on the Gcap (Global Combat Air Programme)

Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom aim to complete the basic project by 2024 according to the plans discussed in Tokyo by the defense ministers of the three countries Crosetto, Hamada and Wallace. The role of Leonardo, Elettronica and Mitsubishi Electric. All the details

The defense ministers of Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom accelerate the Global Combat Air Program (Gcap) for the development of an operational sixth generation combat aircraft by 2035.

The three countries aim to complete the basic project by 2024, reports Nikkei on the sidelines of the meeting that took place yesterday in Tokyo with the Minister of Defense of Japan, Yasukazu Hamada, the Minister of Defense of Italy Guido Crosetto and the Secretary of State for Defense of the United Kingdom, Ben Wallace.

“Italy, the United Kingdom and Japan are united by the same destiny and today we have laid a stone to build an important future together,” said Crosetto. For the three ministers, it was the first meeting since the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on the GCAP program was signed last December on the basis of the solid and lasting relations between the three countries.

The agreement effectively combined the British-led Tempest project — in which our country participates to replace Typhoon fighters — with Japan's FX program in an undertaking called the Global Combat Air Program (GCAO), relating to the development of a of next-generation systems and multi-domain operations.

"An agreement of great importance reached in a delicate geopolitical moment", added Crosetto, highlighting that "our three nations thus strengthen their cooperation in a project that will have important repercussions in the fields of technology, innovation, research and development in the sector of 'aerospace, defense and security'. The CEOs of the Japanese Mitsubishi, the British Bae Systems and the Italian Leonardo also took part in the final part of the trilateral meeting. In fact, the three companies will be part of a joint venture that will lead the project.

All the details.

THE ITALIAN STRATEGY

“Once the Indo-Pacific and the Mediterranean were areas considered distant from each other. Today, however, the world has become smaller and smaller, the crises have increased and the situation will probably get worse in this decade. The future of the Mediterranean depends on what happens in the Indo Pacific and vice versa. And it is for this reason that our nations must work and cooperate together. Only by joining forces will we be able to counter the magnitude of the problems and future challenges". "The Gcap" underlined Minister Crosetto "is an industrial, technological choice but it is, first of all, a political choice of three important nations that have decided to embark on a common path that will allow their respective Armed Forces to cooperate together in various fields ”.

THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN TOKYO, LONDON AND ROME ON THE GCAP

Therefore, the three countries intend to agree on a proposal that meets the needs of the three countries in terms of range, size, weapon systems, stealth performance and other characteristics of the future aircraft. Advanced designs could be ready by 2025, followed by the start of trials. Hamada called the project yesterday "a milestone of wide-ranging cooperation for generations to come".

THE PARTNERSHIP SIGNED BY LEONARDO, MITSUBISHI AND ELETTRONICA

Already this week, on the occasion of the Dsei Japan fair in Tokyo , the companies Mitsubishi Electric representing Japan, Leonardo UK for the United Kingdom and Leonardo and Elettronica for Italy signed a collaboration agreement between international industrial partners in advanced electronics of the Gcap. The partners will develop a communications system that integrates and processes information from manned and unmanned aircraft and transmits information about enemy aircraft and missiles to the pilot.

THE ISSUE OF COST ALLOCATION ON THE GCAP

Therefore, having defined the national industries that will collaborate in the design of the Gcap, the distribution of the burdens remains to be understood

Reuters reported this week Britain and Japan will lead a three-way project with Italy to build a sixth-generation fighter jet, but Rome will fund just a fifth of the overall development cost, two sources said.

The Italian Ministry of Defense immediately denied that it defined the information on an unequal distribution of costs as "speculation". “Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom are working together within the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) on the basis of the shared principle of egalitarian partnership established by their respective leaders (Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Prime Ministers Fumio Kishida and Rishi Sunak) in the declaration joint meeting last December” clarified a note issued by the dicastery headed by Crosetto. The three countries are working together steadily and rapidly on a partnership based on the shared principle of equal partnership,” concludes the statement.

Meanwhile, during a visit to Dsei Japan in Tokyo, British Defense Secretary Wallace said that the program will require an investment of more than 25 billion pounds (about 30 billion dollars) over the next 10 years, and that the UK will invest £10 billion.

FOR CROSETTO ENLARGEMENT TO OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE GCAP

Finally, the program for a new sixth generation aircraft of Italy-United Kingdom and Japan could also be extended to other countries, as Minister Crosetto recalled: "It will bring an unprecedented set of capabilities that will prove to be fundamental for maintaining global stability, creating the conditions necessary to guarantee the continuous development in the field of defense for the decades to come".


This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/ecco-come-italia-giappone-e-regno-unito-accelerano-sul-gcap-global-combat-air-programme/ on Fri, 17 Mar 2023 10:51:41 +0000.