GCAP fighter jet programme: Canada joins the scheme alongside Italia, the UK and Japan
The country will join as an observer. It will have insight into strategies and delivery plans. This forms the basis for discussions on future participation
Key points
Canada has become the first observer country to join the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), the programme for the new stealth fighter being developed jointly by the United Kingdom, Italia and Japan. The announcement by Andy Burnham’s new British government came during the London summit, which brought together the defence ministers of the four countries (Guido Crosetto representing Italia). “We will honour our commitments in the defence sector,” said the new Labour Prime Minister Burnham, emphasising the programme’s importance for the UK.
Plans for long-term deliveries shared with Canada
“The GCAP is already one of the most ambitious industrial and defence partnerships in the world, supporting 4,500 jobs across the UK,” added Burnham, who believes that the inclusion of a long-standing ally such as Canada makes the project “even stronger”. As an observer nation, Canada will have a direct insight into the development of GCAP’s capabilities, in terms of industrial collaboration and long-term delivery plans for the fighter jet, “through a structured engagement with partner nations”, as stated in a note from the UK Ministry of Defence. Although Canada will not have a decision-making role, its participation paves the way for discussions on future involvement and Canada’s contribution to the programme.
Crosetto: ‘Full support for Canada’s interests’
The announcement came as the new Defence Minister, Wes Streeting, was hosting his Japanese, Italian and Canadian counterparts – Shinjirō Koizumi, Crosetto and David McGuinty – at the summit at Wellington Barracks in London. The news was welcomed by the Italian Defence Minister, Guido Crosetto. “I expressed my full support for Canada’s interest in the GCAP programme, the sixth-generation fighter aircraft,” said the minister after meeting his Canadian counterpart David McGuinty. “Italia and Canada share a strong commitment to strengthening cooperation in the fields of defence and security, based on common values and our shared membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation,” Crosetto wrote on X. “We intend to expand cooperation between our armed forces and promote new opportunities in the fields of innovation, future capabilities and the defence industry.”
NATO’s interests extend to the Indo-Pacific and Antarctica
With regard to the main international developments and the situation in the Middle East, Crosetto emphasised that he agreed that ‘the centre of global balances and the strategic interests of the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation are increasingly extending to new regions that were once far from our attention, including the Indo-Pacific and Antarctica’. It is therefore ‘necessary to broaden our perspective and develop collaborative projects capable of taking these new balances into account, in the knowledge that security challenges require coordinated responses and ever-closer cooperation between us’, added Crosetto, “Finally, we confirmed our commitment to developing new joint projects, strengthening the partnership between our countries as a concrete contribution to Euro-Atlantic security and international stability.”
