Proactive Investors - UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said today that the country has penned a treaty with Japan and Italy to build stealth fighter jets in the UK and Italy.
BAE Systems (LON:BAES), Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON:RR), Leonardo UK and MBDA UK will partner on the project, in addition to hundreds of companies in the UK supply chain, according to a Ministry of Defence (MoD) statement.
These engineering companies will work with companies in Japan and Italy to progress design and development of the new Tempest aircraft at UK premises, with joint development starting in 2025.
The goal is to develop an innovative stealth fighter with supersonic capability, with initial construction in Italy, which will be airborne by 2035 and become one of the world’s most advanced fighter jets.
The jet will use radar 10,000 times more powerful than existing systems, the MoD said.
The defence ministry added that a new headquarters will be set up in the UK for the initiative.
The treaty forms part of the Global Combat Air Programme, which will be headquartered in the UK and focus on military capability and combat air industrial capability, with a Japanese appointed chief executive.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Our world-leading combat aircraft programme aims to be crucial to global security and we continue to make hugely positive progress toward delivery of the new jets to our respective air forces in 2035.
“The UK-based headquarters will also see us make important decisions collaboratively and at pace, working with our close partners Italy and Japan, and our impressive defence industries, to deliver an outstanding aircraft.”
Shapps met with Japanese minister Minoru Kihara and and Italian minister Guido Crosetto in Tokyo to sign the treaty, a year after the air combat programme’s launch.
The UK MoD has spent £2 billion on technology in the UK in the past five years, leveraging £600 million from industry.
The government department said the latest deal is a demonstration of the government’s commitment to Indo-Pacific security, following the deployment of the Royal Navy’s Carrier Strike Group in 2021, with a further roll-out due in 2025.