The defense chiefs of Japan and the United Kingdom used a meeting in London to discuss deepening bilateral ties, including advancing their joint fighter development program with Italy, just as British troops arrived in Kyushu to kickstart Tokyo’s only bilateral military drills with a European nation on its territory.
In talks held Wednesday, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and his British counterpart, John Healey, agreed to support the quick establishment of a joint venture that will be tasked with delivering the sixth-generation fighter aircraft under the trilateral Global Combat Air Program (GCAP).
This comes after the top companies involved in the multibillion-dollar project agreed last month to set up the business construct by mid-2025. The upcoming launch of the joint venture, which will initially be led by an Italian, will enable the endeavor to move on to the next stage — the aircraft’s full development and design phase — later this year.
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