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Global Combat Air Programme
The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP; Italian: Programma Aereo da Combattimento Globale; PACG; Japanese: グローバル戦闘航空プログラム, romanized: Gurōbaru Sentō Kōkū Puroguramu) is a multinational initiative led by Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom to jointly develop a sixth-generation stealth fighter, informally referred to as Tempest. The programme aims to replace the Eurofighter Typhoon in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Italian Air Force, and the Mitsubishi F-2 in service with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.
On 9 December 2022, the governments of Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, jointly announced that they would develop and deploy a common fighter jet, merging their previously separate sixth-generation projects: the United Kingdom-led BAE Systems Tempest developed with Italy, and the Japanese Mitsubishi F-X. This was formalised with a treaty signed in December 2023 in Japan.
There are around 9,000 people working on the programme worldwide, with 1,000 and more suppliers from across the three partner nations. 600 such suppliers are based in the UK, and 400 are based in Italy and Japan.
Under the current timeline, formal development was expected to begin in 2025, but the design contract was only formalized in April 2026. A demonstrator aircraft is expected to fly in 2027, and production aircraft to begin entering service from 2035.
In June 2025, Italian Leonardo, British BAE Systems and Japanese JAIEC (a consortium led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) launched a joint venture meant to oversee the programme - Edgewing.
Japan, an island nation, has a disproportionately vast air defence identification zone given the size of its land territory, and it was expected that the country would have to protect it with a smaller fleet of fighters compared to those of its growing neighbours with much larger populations. To address this issue, the Ministry of Defence decided in 2010 that Japan's next-generation fighter had to be highly information-based, intelligent, and capable of instantaneous response (i3 fighter). At the time, the fighter fleet of the Japan Air Self-Defence Force mainly consisted of the Mitsubishi F-15J and the Mitsubishi F-2. The former is a variant of the F-15, manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (hereafter referred to as Mitsubishi) under licence, while the latter was developed by Mitsubishi and Lockheed Martin based on the F-16 in the 1990s. While the F-15J was set to be replaced by the F-35, a replacement for the F-2 needed to be found before its planned retirement in the 2030s.
Following the USA's decision not to allow the export of the F-22 Raptor to any other country in 2007, Japan began looking for a domestic solution to field a new fighter aircraft to replace its Mitsubishi F-2 fleet. From the mid-2000s Japan began funding various research programmes involved in fighter design culminating in the Mitsubishi X-2 Shinshin experimental aircraft which took flight on 22 April 2016. This research and the data collected from the X-2 programme would feed the development of Japan's main fighter effort, the Mitsubishi F-X programme. The IHI Corporation completed a prototype for the XF9 engine in 2018. In 2018, after more than a decade since America's refusal to export the F-22, Lockheed Martin proposed a potential Japan-America collaboration project to develop the F-2 successor based on the F-22 and F-35, but this was rejected by Japan.
The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) committed the United Kingdom to operating a Royal Air Force fast-jet fleet comprising Eurofighter Typhoons, F-35s, and uncrewed combat and reconnaissance aircraft by the 2020s. In preparation for the 2015 SDSR, the UK launched a two-year Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme to assess options for the post-2030 fleet, including new Uncrewed Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs), additional F-35 orders, life extension of Typhoon, or a new crewed fighter design.
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Global Combat Air Programme
The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP; Italian: Programma Aereo da Combattimento Globale; PACG; Japanese: グローバル戦闘航空プログラム, romanized: Gurōbaru Sentō Kōkū Puroguramu) is a multinational initiative led by Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom to jointly develop a sixth-generation stealth fighter, informally referred to as Tempest. The programme aims to replace the Eurofighter Typhoon in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Italian Air Force, and the Mitsubishi F-2 in service with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.
On 9 December 2022, the governments of Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, jointly announced that they would develop and deploy a common fighter jet, merging their previously separate sixth-generation projects: the United Kingdom-led BAE Systems Tempest developed with Italy, and the Japanese Mitsubishi F-X. This was formalised with a treaty signed in December 2023 in Japan.
There are around 9,000 people working on the programme worldwide, with 1,000 and more suppliers from across the three partner nations. 600 such suppliers are based in the UK, and 400 are based in Italy and Japan.
Under the current timeline, formal development was expected to begin in 2025, but the design contract was only formalized in April 2026. A demonstrator aircraft is expected to fly in 2027, and production aircraft to begin entering service from 2035.
In June 2025, Italian Leonardo, British BAE Systems and Japanese JAIEC (a consortium led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) launched a joint venture meant to oversee the programme - Edgewing.
Japan, an island nation, has a disproportionately vast air defence identification zone given the size of its land territory, and it was expected that the country would have to protect it with a smaller fleet of fighters compared to those of its growing neighbours with much larger populations. To address this issue, the Ministry of Defence decided in 2010 that Japan's next-generation fighter had to be highly information-based, intelligent, and capable of instantaneous response (i3 fighter). At the time, the fighter fleet of the Japan Air Self-Defence Force mainly consisted of the Mitsubishi F-15J and the Mitsubishi F-2. The former is a variant of the F-15, manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (hereafter referred to as Mitsubishi) under licence, while the latter was developed by Mitsubishi and Lockheed Martin based on the F-16 in the 1990s. While the F-15J was set to be replaced by the F-35, a replacement for the F-2 needed to be found before its planned retirement in the 2030s.
Following the USA's decision not to allow the export of the F-22 Raptor to any other country in 2007, Japan began looking for a domestic solution to field a new fighter aircraft to replace its Mitsubishi F-2 fleet. From the mid-2000s Japan began funding various research programmes involved in fighter design culminating in the Mitsubishi X-2 Shinshin experimental aircraft which took flight on 22 April 2016. This research and the data collected from the X-2 programme would feed the development of Japan's main fighter effort, the Mitsubishi F-X programme. The IHI Corporation completed a prototype for the XF9 engine in 2018. In 2018, after more than a decade since America's refusal to export the F-22, Lockheed Martin proposed a potential Japan-America collaboration project to develop the F-2 successor based on the F-22 and F-35, but this was rejected by Japan.
The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) committed the United Kingdom to operating a Royal Air Force fast-jet fleet comprising Eurofighter Typhoons, F-35s, and uncrewed combat and reconnaissance aircraft by the 2020s. In preparation for the 2015 SDSR, the UK launched a two-year Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme to assess options for the post-2030 fleet, including new Uncrewed Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs), additional F-35 orders, life extension of Typhoon, or a new crewed fighter design.
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