European next-generation fighter programs have run into rough weather. While the GCAP (Global Combat Air Program), pursued jointly by the UK, Italy, and Japan, is facing internal differences, the FCAS (Future Combat Air System) could even be scrapped.
In an interview with Reuters in April 2025, Italy’s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto accused the UK of withholding crucial technologies related to the GCAP.
“You have to break down some barriers of selfishness. Italy has broken them down totally, Japan almost totally. It seems to me that the UK is much more reluctant to do this, and that’s a mistake because selfishness is the worst enemy of nations,” he stated.
The British Ministry of Defense responded by defending its involvement in the alliance and describing GCAP as an excellent illustration of cutting-edge international cooperation.
However, nearly a year later, the issues between Italy and the UK appear to have remained unresolved. Crosetto has once again alleged that the UK is not doing enough to share its cutting-edge technology with its partners in the tri-nation program and has referred to the purported British secrecy as “madness.”
He further cautioned that the UK risked helping foes worldwide as long as it did not share cutting-edge technology with its Italian and Japanese partners on the sixth-generation jet program.
“It’s a huge favor to the Russians and the Chinese,” he stated.
The GCAP project, launched in 2022, is led by Britain’s BAE Systems, Italy’s Leonardo, and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
The Italian Defense Minister said that he was trying to set a precedent in discussions with Leonardo. “I have ordered Leonardo to share its technology; let’s see if the others follow. That way, we take the first step.”
Notably, these comments come after it was revealed that Italy’s outlay on the design and development of the GCAP fighter had increased significantly over the past five years—from €6 billion ($7 billion) to €18.6 billion ($21.8 billion).
The price hike has been fiercely criticised by Italy’s opposition Five Star party.
“This is the most expensive program in the history of the Italian military, overtaking the F-35, where €18 billion was spent on 90 aircraft,” Five Star parliamentarians said in a statement.
The GCAP appeared to be cruising ahead of FCAS without any major obstacles. In June 2025, the long-awaited industrial joint venture—formed in late 2024 by BAE Systems (UK), Leonardo (Italy), and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan)—was officially named Edgewing and launched as the central design authority responsible for the aircraft’s full development, production, delivery, and entire lifecycle.
Later that year, Rolls-Royce (UK), Avio Aero (Italy), and IHI (Japan) expanded their consortium agreement for the fighter’s engine, enabling direct collaboration with Edgewing, transitioning to integrated international work, and successful testing of advanced combustor technologies.
Meanwhile, the GCAP and its industrial and governmental partners were moving closer to starting full design and development work of the futuristic aircraft, as reported by Janes earlier this month.
While the program has largely remained on track, a minor blip occurred last year when a Reuters report stated that Japan was concerned that the next-generation aircraft would not meet its rollout target. The report claimed that Britain and Italy’s lack of urgency is causing delays in GCAP and could push the deployment past 2040.
The claims of delays were never officially acknowledged, and the report offered no clear reason for the apprehension. However, it must be noted that differences between the partners could potentially slow the program and the development of subsystems related to the next-generation aircraft.
FCAS Future Increasingly Uncertain
The FCAS is a ‘system of systems’ program that includes a next-generation fighter (NGF), adjunct aircraft, and a combat cloud—a multi-domain capable, data-rich network enabling cross-platform information sharing.
The program has been delayed by several years and is currently thought to be on the verge of collapse due to the impasse between Airbus (representing Germany and Spain) and Dassault (representing France) over a host of issues, such as disputes over work sharing, control over the aircraft’s design, and choice of suppliers.
Within the broader FCAS initiative, Dassault is responsible for the crewed NGF, while Airbus is responsible for the “loyal wingman” remote-carrier drone design, new cloud capabilities, and stealth technologies. Meanwhile, Spain-based Indra is working on the sensor systems, while Safran is developing a new jet engine for the fighter.
The gridlock has been attributed to Dassault’s reluctance to share the NGF workload with its counterparts. In an interview last year, Dassault CEO Eric Trappier said that a collaboration focused on sharing work could lead to a less-than-ideal technological solution—implying that Dassault has decades of experience and the necessary skills to construct complete fighter jets with little to no outside assistance.
On the other hand, Germany, represented by Airbus, has refused to allow Dassault to receive the larger share, which would favour the French contractor and leave very little for German industry.
Late last year, Germany and France reportedly put pressure on industrial leaders Airbus and Dassault to find a solution to the troubled joint fighter jet project. However, a decision was indefinitely postponed at the end of December 2025.
Germany had earlier threatened to withdraw from the FCAS if the two sides failed to resolve the issues amicably.
“The Chancellor and I are in full agreement that there needs to be a decision by the end of the year…Otherwise, we will pull the plug,” the German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius had said in October 2025. Some reports also suggested that Germany was considering the option of replacing France with another international partner, as explained in detail by the EurAsian Times.
However, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated on January 29 that the FCAS collaboration was certain to produce combined defense systems, although it was unclear if the French-German-Spanish FCAS warplane initiative would result in collaborative aircraft.
“There will definitely be joint systems,” Merz said. “We are currently in intensive talks with France about the extent to which we will continue to develop and build joint aircraft, and I expect that we will reach a joint decision on this within the next few weeks.”
This statement suggests that the two sides could develop their own sixth-generation fighters within the FCAS framework.
In line with Merz’s comments, Airbus Defence and Space CEO Michael Schöllhorn told Euractiv that separate aircraft for France and Germany would be a possible “good” way to resolve the disagreement impeding the construction of Europe’s next-generation fighter.
Schäthorn said he is collaborating effectively with the majority of partners on this huge project. But when it comes to the next-generation fighter, “we have a combination of two companies that have totally different views of what the European Cooperative Project is,” he stated.
Neither the French government nor Dassault has confirmed such plans, but the CEO had earlier implied that the company could go it alone and develop its own next-generation fighter if the program collapsed, taking the Rafale route.
As far as GCAP is concerned, it is unlikely to remain exempt from the difficulties associated with a multinational agreement, but it has so far managed to avoid an FCAS-like impasse.
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