Keir Starmer green-lights multibillion-pound fighter jet with Italy and Japan

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The UK has given the green light to building a new multibillion-pound fighter jet with Italy and Japan, ending fears that the flagship project could fall victim to the new Labour government’s strategic defence review.

Ministers gave the go-ahead for the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) at a meeting on Tuesday, according to several people familiar with the decision. A formal announcement is expected in the coming weeks. 

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “chaired a meeting of some ministers . . . at which they made a firm commitment to GCAP”, said one British government official.

The news will come as a relief to Italy and Japan, Britain’s partners on GCAP, after Labour sparked fears in the summer shortly after taking power that it could axe the jet project on cost grounds.

Armed forces minister Luke Pollard in July described the programme as “really important” but had said it would not be right for him to prejudge Labour’s strategic defence review (SDR).

Starmer similarly stopped short of confirming Britain’s participation would continue during a visit to the Farnborough Air Show in late July.

GCAP is intended to expand each nation’s defence capabilities to address rising threats from Russia and China. It merges Japan’s F-X programme with the UK and Italy’s Tempest project, with the aim of delivering a supersonic jet by 2035.

The UK has committed just over £2bn to the original Tempest programme alone but the eventual cost of GCAP is not yet fully known. The project is underpinned by a trilateral treaty between the partner nations signed in December last year.

Britain’s biggest defence companies, BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce, are working together alongside industrial partners Leonardo of Italy and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan on the programme.

“Starmer was aware of the discomfort from Japan and Italy at the uncertainty the SDR was creating and wanted to make a firm decision one way or the other sooner rather than later,” said a person familiar with the meeting. 

UK defence secretary John Healey has stressed the importance of GCAP in recent weeks, including at the G7 Defence Ministers Summit in Naples.

The Ministry of Defence said the UK was a “proud member of the Global Combat Air Programme, working together with our partners Japan and Italy we are fully focused on delivering a next-generation combat aircraft for 2035”.

“We are making rapid progress across the programme, driving innovation, creating jobs and boosting the industrial base of each country.”

British chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an additional £2.9bn for the MoD for next year in her recent Budget, intended to ensure the UK continues to meet and exceed its Nato commitments.

Labour’s defence spending review comes after the UK’s National Audit Office last year branded the MoD’s equipment plan for Britain’s armed forces “unaffordable”.