SINGAPORE – With Japan, Britain and Italy set to begin the next phase of talks about their joint next-generation fighter aircraft next month, industry officials have said that the partners are close to completing the aircraft’s conceptual design phase as they prepare to set up the industrial entities from the year-end that will deliver the program.

“We have completed the systems requirements review, meaning that we’ve now got a common requirement set for all three countries,” Jonathan Moreton, director of partnerships and exports at Britain’s BAE Systems, told The Japan Times.

 

BAE Systems is one of the three companies expected to be lead system integrators in the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), alongside Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Italy’s Leonardo, in the new joint program.

In an exclusive interview at the Singapore Airshow, Moreton, a former British Royal Air Force pilot, said the completion of the conceptual design phase will allow the partners to move to the next stage of the program next year — the design and development phase — which is expected to last five years and lead to the maiden flight of the first test aircraft from around 2030.

The sixth-generation jet, intended to replace aging Air Self-Defense Force F-2 fighters, as well as British and Italian Eurofighters, is slated to be ready for export and deployment by 2035 — an ambitious goal, given the challenges of developing such an advanced platform, particularly across international borders.

In December, Tokyo, London and Rome agreed to establish the GCAP International Government Organization (GIGO) to manage the project, and agree on joint roles and responsibilities between the trilateral partners, critical aspects set to be discussed in greater detail from next month.

GIGO will set out the aircraft’s overall capability requirements while overseeing the industrial constructs, which will be tasked with meeting those specifications in a timely and affordable manner.

An industry source familiar with the program said GIGO, which will comprise a steering committee and implementation agency, will likely draw lessons from the experiences of similar organizations set up for multinational fighter projects, including the Eurofighter Typhoon and Panavia Tornado, which Britain and Italy previously participated in.

Before the talks begin, however, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is hoping to come to an agreement with its junior coalition partner, Komeito, to allow the export of the aircraft to third countries by slightly amending the country’s strict defense export guidelines.

Current rules do not allow jointly developed and completed defense products to be exported to any country other than development partner nations, which is why Tokyo is now considering a plan to limit such defense exports — at least for now — to the future supersonic jet.

 

The agreement also envisions that exports of the twin-engine fighter be limited to countries that have signed defense equipment and technology transfer deals with Japan, while excluding those directly involved in conflict.

A Japanese agreement on exports will be critical, as GCAP has been designed from the onset with foreign sales in mind.

“The program philosophy and every conversation we’ve had with our partners from the beginning has been that this product is also meant for export,” said Moreton, who also works as BAE Systems’ liaison officer with Japan.

“We’ve got an export strategy and will continue to develop it as we stand up the GIGO and the industrial construct,” he said, without elaborating on the potential customers the program has in mind.

That said, building fighter jets involves a complex supply chain, meaning that the multibillion-dollar program will comprise more than one industry construct. To achieve this, several companies are set to come together as lead subsystem integrators in three broad domains.

The first such industrial construct — in charge of sensors and communications — will bring together Leonardo U.K., Leonardo Italy and Mitsubishi Electric, while the second will see Rolls-Royce, Avio Aero and IHI work on engines and propulsion systems. Finally, MBDA U.K., MBDA Italy, and Mitsubishi Electric will join forces to develop the aircraft’s future weapon systems. At the same time, these companies are expected to engage hundreds of subcontractors.

It is still unclear, however, if and when other nations will formally join the multinational endeavor, which marks the first time Japan will cooperate with countries other than the United States to meet a major defense requirement.

Moreton said that while GCAP “will be open to future partners,” all three countries would need to agree on the partner and its level of participation. This comes after Sweden initially showed interest and amid reports Saudi Arabia is “very keen” on joining.

In terms of capabilities, developers are trying to make sure the aircraft will match the needs of the mid-2030s and beyond. To ensure it does, the fighter will be fitted with state-of-the-art systems that, among other things, will allow it to operate in conjunction with AI-equipped unmanned aircraft.

Industry officials say the stealthy jet is expected to function as both a combat aircraft and a flying command center capable of controlling and coordinating other, likely autonomous, assets, with the aircraft viewed as “the centerpiece of a wider combat air system that will function across multiple domains.”

In terms of interoperability, the jet is also being designed with U.S. military and other NATO forces in mind, since Japan, Italy and the U.K. all hope to employ the fighter in joint operations with allies and partners.

According to Moreton, the new aircraft is expected to be more difficult to detect in the electromagnetic spectrum than previous-generation fighters, as well as capable of sensing threats at greater ranges and in more frequency bands.

The fighter “aims to harness next-generation technologies and become one of the world’s most advanced, interoperable, adaptable and connected fighter jets in service globally,” the British Defense Ministry has said, noting its powerful radar “that can provide 10,000 times more data than current systems.”

But will each partner country have its own variant of the jet?

Guglielmo Maviglia, chief GCAP officer at Leonardo, said that despite the multinational nature of the organization, engineers are mainly focused on developing a “single-configuration” core aircraft that will be the main enabler of a “system of systems” — a type of command and operating center — capable of communicating across five domains: land, sea, air, cyber and space.

At the same time, Maviglia said that international collaboration will be based on the principles of “freedom of action and freedom of modification.”

This means each partner country will be able to modify and adapt the jet, primarily in terms of software, in the way and at the time, place and pace they wish to. Such freedoms will assure the operational autonomy of the respective armed forces as well as the technological sovereignty of the industries involved, Maviglia added.

In terms of work distribution among the leading companies, Mavilglia said this remains a work in progress, while noting that discussions continue, based on the spirit of equal partnership.

Another issue to be clarified is how companies will share intellectual property rights once work begins.

But how can such an aircraft be developed so fast?

To speed up the development process, the jet is expected to benefit from the latest advancements in design and engineering technology, with the project set to rely heavily on integrated digital engineering processes.

The adoption of these technologies will allow for round-the-clock work across different locations and time zones.

“We believe there are advantages to using DX (digital transformation) to streamline operations and take advantage of the geographical relationship between Japan and (the) U.K./Italy to advance development 24 hours a day,” an MHI spokesperson said.

Moreton said that modern digital tools will enable designers and engineers to deliver the fighter in about 10 years, or about half the time it took the Eurofighter Typhoon program.

To save precious time, GCAP will also rely on what he described as the first digital airworthiness certification process for a modern fighter aircraft.

“Instead of printing reams of evidence, you will now have digital access to the history of how that part was made, meaning that you can certify the individual parts and accelerate certification,” Moreton said.

He also noted that new technologies will enable engineers to fix potential design and development issues much quicker than before, including flaws in critical areas such as the engines.

“If you have a problem with, say, the combustion chamber, you can now use digital printing and fix that problem in under 12 weeks, whereas it would have previously taken over a year,” he said, pointing to recent successes achieved by Rolls-Royce’s Orpheus program.

Part of the GCAP program will also involve integration with adjacent systems, including next-generation training.

While all three countries currently train for the fifth-generation F-35 fighters, it remains unclear which new training system will be chosen for GCAP.

That said, Moreton believes the main challenge will be keeping the focus on the 2035 deployment date.

“If we end up drifting from the agreed date, chances are that costs will escalate, criticism will start flying and the program could end up running behind schedule,” he said, pointing to the need to remain focused and work closely together.

At the same time, Moreton emphasized that GIGO needs to be empowered by the respective governments to deliver the program.

“We can’t end up in a situation where GIGO or the industrial construct has to keep reaching back to individual countries for direction, or intent,” he said, emphasizing that to ensure the deadline is met, “the project needs to be carried out by an empowered consortium.”