The UK is building a next generation fighter jet in collaboration with Italy and Japan. The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) has taken on even greater significance since the collapse of a rival project called the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), a collaboration between France, Germany and Spain.

The GCAP aircraft, which will be known in Britain as Tempest, should enter service by 2035. For Britain and Italy, the project fulfils a need to replace their Eurofighter Typhoon fleets with a cutting edge combat jet capable of protecting national borders.

The plane could also participate in Nato-led missions, including protecting European skies against capable and determined adversaries. Japan too needs a fighter jet up to the task of protecting a large maritime region against incursions of its airspace.

So can these three partner nations succeed where FCAS failed and build a truly state-of-the-art combat aircraft?

The most advanced fighter jets in the world are known as “fifth generation”. Tempest is classed as a sixth generation fighter jet. China and Russia have fifth generation aircraft and are working on their own sixth generation combat jets.

Many European nations have been replacing their ageing fleets with America’s fifth generation F-35 aircraft. But the Trump administration’s wavering levels of support for Nato have made some governments rethink their reliance on American hardware.

This underlines the importance of sovereign capability for the nations behind GCAP, which was established in 2022. On July 3 2026, the UK, Italy and Japan signed a £4.6 billion deal........

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