United Kingdom, Italy and Japan launch their joint company

The model of the Global Combat Air Program’s sixth-generation fighter jet, in the colors of the British flag, unveiled at the inauguration of the 2024 Farnborough International Airshow, southwest London, July 22, 2024. JUSTIN TALLIS /AFP The model of the sixth generation aircraft was unveiled at the Farnborough International Air Show (United Kingdom) in July. For six months, military aviation circles have been waiting for the creation of the joint venture between the British BAE Systems, the Italian Leonardo and the Japanese Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), through its subsidiary Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement. It’s done: the three manufacturers announced, Friday December 13, that the joint venture will be operational by mid-2025. Based in the English town of Reading and managed by an Italian manager, the company will be owned equally (33.3%) by the three industrialists. It will ensure the design, development and production of the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), a “system of systems” combining a hypersonic stealth fighter plane (with or without a pilot), drones and a combat cloud to connect the different “effectors” in a theater of operations. The very ambitious schedule provides for entry into service in 2035. The program is close to – and in competition with – the Franco-German Future Air Combat System (SCAF), launched in 2017 by the French Dassault Aviation, and the German Airbus Defense and Space, and joined by the Spanish Indra. You have 77.25% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.



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