Guido Crosetto, Italian Minister of Defense, accused the GCAP partner of neglecting to share unpertified technologies with other program members.
Speaking has ReutersCrosetto discussed the Global Fight Air Program (GCAP) partnership and technological cooperation between members of Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. He explained: “You have to break certain barriers of selfishness. Italy has completely broken down, Japan almost completely. It seems to me that the United Kingdom is much more reluctant to do it, and it is a mistake because selfishness is the worst enemy of nations.”
The Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, said that Great Britain does not fully share technologies with Italy and Japan in a large project aimed at developing a new fighter plane and urged London to lower the “barriers of selfishness”. https://t.co/ykgebacky1 pic.twitter.com/twusv4tbh1
– Reuters (@reuters) April 15, 2025
GCAP is the joint project to produce a next generation fighting aircraft To replace Eurofighter Typhons Italy and Italy, and Mitsubishi F-2 of Japan. He is often called a sixth generation ” fighter ”, using the stealth functionalities any aspect observed on fifth generation fighters in addition to the advanced Integrated IT taking advantage of the progress of artificial intelligence, augmented reality, the integration of systems and architectures of open systems. The plane will also be designed to take advantage of association developments in a drawback, using unmanned planes as a force multipliers.
This will be the response of the three partner nations to Boeing F-47 to comeAlthough due to the requirements of different customers, everyone can cut their own niche and be difficult to compare directly. France, Germany and Spain have their own Future Air System fight (FCAS) Program, but it seems to be more late in development compared to GCAP. GCAP aims to have a flight prototype by 2027, ready for planes to enter Operational service from 2035.
Crosetto did not specify any details concerning specific areas of technology where he thinks that the United Kingdom retains information. A response from the British Defense Ministry (MOD) underlined the collaborative nature of GCAP and said that “the technologies we develop and the capacities that we build together are at the forefront of science and engineering”.
Esports Hopes
Apart from Europe, Saudi Arabia has long been presented as a new potential GCAP nation, and the Minister strongly supports such an entry to the program, claiming that the Middle East nation “needs technological growth and has more available resources than our three countries”.
More recently, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) confirmed that they had received a briefing on GCAP. Although considered by some as a possible client for the F-47, others have noted that the apparent GCAP accent on long endurance would be particularly beneficial for operations in the Pacific where the safe allied air bases could be rare.
Receiving such briefings is a common practice when new planes are underway and does not directly point out the interest of Australia to join the program. However, the idea seems to have Strong support from the United Kingdomwhich with close links in the Commonwealth is now also joined with Australia through Aukus.
I suspect that Australia will seek the promised range with GCAP / Tempest on everything that NGAD seems to offer (that is difficult to say of this rendering, but the range does not seem to be) … pic.twitter.com/d0cbkkgpqc
– Gareth Jennings (@ Garethjennings3) March 21, 2025
The seizure of GCAP would also solidify the links of Australia with Japan. The two nations have increased their defense cooperation In recent years, China has expanded its interests in the Pacific region. The exploitation of the same type of combat aircraft would allow increased interoperability and simplified logistics – the latter being an important consideration in the Pacific where supply chains can spend thousands of kilometers through vulnerable shipping tracks.
Apart from planes, Japan is Eager to offer its Mogami class frigate For Australia General use frigate contract. This requirement was written in 2024, when the command of Australia for the Hunter class frigate (based on type 26 of the United Kingdom) was reduced from nine to six ships. Eleven frigates for smaller general use will then complement these six, in an arrangement similar to type 26 of the Royal Navy and Type 31.