The contract, awarded by the GCAP Agency to Edgewing, will support the completion of the advanced concept and assessment phase, alongside detailed design and development activities over 18 months. It marks the second international contract under the programme, following an earlier £686 million award in April 2026.
Jointly funded by the three partner nations, the contract will drive critical engineering and design work, reinforcing GCAP as a key example of international defence collaboration. The programme is aimed at delivering a next-generation stealth fighter aircraft while strengthening industrial capability and generating high-skilled employment across all three countries.
Masami Oka, GCAP Agency Chief Executive, 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 defeating future threats, while sharing costs, 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, the trinational prime contractor and design authority, continues to integrate expertise from across the partner nations under a unified engineering structure. The model represents a new approach to multinational defence collaboration, bringing together national industries under a single framework.
Marco Zoff, Edgewing Chief Executive Officer, stated:
“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 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 supported by trinational industrial collaborations, including the GCAP Electronics Evolution (G2E) consortium, which is developing advanced sensing and communication systems, and a dedicated power and propulsion consortium focused on enhancing range and endurance capabilities.
Launched in 2022, GCAP aims to deliver an advanced stealth fighter aircraft by 2035, equipped with next-generation technologies designed to operate effectively in highly contested environments.
