ROME — Italy, Japan and the U.K. have signed a stopgap contract to keep work going on their joint GCAP fighter program for three months, giving the U.K. time to free up more funding.
The joint program office created by the three nations announced the signing of a £686 million ($906 million) development contract on Thursday with Edgewing, the joint venture set up to develop the sixth-generation jet by local champions BAE Systems, Leonardo, and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co. Ltd. (JAIEC).
“The £686 million contract invests in key design and engineering activities and enables the trilateral partnership to build momentum and accelerate pace of delivery,” the tri-government GCAP agency said.
Edgewing’s first contract follows growing concern over delays in funding caused by ongoing uncertainty over the U.K.’s Defense Investment Plan, which was due to contain GCAP cash.
The plan was due to be completed last year, but has yet to be published amid a public spending crunch and a reported £28 billion funding gap in the U.K. defense budget.
That has left programs like GCAP under a cloud since the first contract with Edgewing was due to be signed off last year. Japanese officials have said they are worried GCAP delivery will be pushed beyond the scheduled date in 2035.
A source on the program told Defense News the new contract is a “bridge” allowing work to continue until the end of June, when it is hoped the U.K. spending plan will be complete and a second, larger contract can be signed.
“Today’s contract is tri-national, with the U.K. contributing, and designed to keep the program on schedule,” said the source.
Ahead of the completion of the Defense Investment Plan, the U.K. last month handed Leonardo a £1 billion contract to build 23 AW149 helicopters at the firm’s Yeovil plant in the U.K. to ward off closure of the plant.
Referring to the Edgewing deal, a spokesman for the joint venture said, “With the signing of this international contract, Edgewing is now fully empowered to drive the program forward as its industrial lead. Our priority is to ensure that engineering work continues to meet planned milestones and the business continues to ramp-up according to our projections.”
To date Italy, the U.K. and Japan have created separate funding for the program. The new contract is the first time they have signed a single contract with Edgewing.
“This is the first time in history that responsibility for the technical design and development of a combat aircraft program has been fully vested in a new international prime contractor, and we are making every effort to live up to this responsibility.” said the Edgewing spokesman.
Masami Oka, GCAP Agency Chief Executive said, “This contract is an important moment for GCAP, as activities previously conducted under three nations’ contracts will now be carried out as part of a fully-fledged international program.”
Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.
Source:
www.defensenews.com
