The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) is advancing into its next phase after awarding a £4.6 billion contract to Edgewing, the traditional prime contractor and design authority for the future combat aircraft.
A major milestone for the multinational defence initiative, reinforcing the pace of progress since the programme’s launch by jointly funding three nations. The investment is driving critical design and engineering work while strengthening long-term collaboration across the participating industries. The contract follows an earlier £686 million agreement awarded by the GCAP Agency to Edgewing in April 2026, further accelerating the programme’s development.
GCAP Agency Masami Oka, CEO, said, “I am delighted to sign this international contract on behalf of the three GCAP nations – Italy, Japan and the UK. It will enable the GCAP Agency and Edgewing to continue making huge progress in all areas of delivery. The programme is vital for global security and for defeating future threats, while sharing costs and technological advantages and creating highly skilled jobs in all three nations. With this long-term funding, the future of GCAP has never been more assured. I am excited about what we will achieve over the next 18 months and the opportunities we can create to grow the programme further.”
Edgewing is bringing together engineering expertise from Italy, Japan and the UK under a single organisational structure, whilst CEO Marco Zoff says the latest contract reflects the trust placed in the company by the partner governments and the GCAP Agency. He noted, “This contract represents the trust placed in us by all three nations and our GCAP Agency partners, trust fostered by the rapid progress made under the first international contract. This momentum is being driven by our disruptive new model of defence collaboration: the first time that three countries have come together to create a single engineering prime, working on behalf of our national industries, with a single empowered customer. As we continue GCAP UNCLASSIFIED GCAP UNCLASSIFIED to ramp up operations and execute this next phase of the programme, I look with pride at the strides we have already made and with confidence at the future still to come.”
The wider programme is also relying on trinational industrial partnerships. These include the GCAP Electronics Evolution (G2E) consortium, which is developing advanced sensing and communication systems and a separate power and propulsion consortium that is designing an engine capable of delivering greater range and endurance.
With engineering teams operating across all three countries, GCAP is strengthening industrial capabilities, advancing manufacturing technologies and generating high-value cargo jobs, intellectual property and economic growth.
