A £686m ($922m) international contract has been awarded to Edgewing to advance design and development activities for the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP).
The contract represents the first joint agreement for GCAP, a collaborative effort among Italy, Japan and the UK to develop a next-generation combat aircraft.
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Edgewing, a joint venture (JV) formed by BAE Systems, Leonardo, and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co. (JAIEC), received the contract from the GCAP Agency, which manages the project on behalf of the three nations.
GCAP Agency chief executive Masami Oka said: “This contract is an important moment for GCAP, as activities previously conducted under three nations’ contracts will now be carried out as part of a fully-fledged international programme.”
The funding will support key engineering and design initiatives intended to accelerate the aircraft’s delivery timeline.
The aircraft is scheduled to enter service by 2035 and is expected to remain in operation beyond 2070.
According to information provided by Leonardo, the stealth combat aircraft will be able to execute missions in a “coordinated and collaborative” way with other military assets.
It will be supported by a command, control and communications system that incorporates AI, supercomputing, combat cloud architecture, and adaptive, high-speed cyber-resilient datalinks for transmitting large volumes of data.
Edgewing is headquartered in the UK, with plans to operate across all three countries involved.
The company is responsible for designing and developing the GCAP next-generation combat aircraft and will serve as the design authority for the duration of the aircraft’s lifecycle.
Edgewing chief executive officer Marco Zoff said: “The pace at which Edgewing and the GCAP Agency have ramped up, and are now operating, has been made possible through our shared purpose and strength of collaboration. We are proud to carry this momentum forward.”
