Saudi Arabia wants to join the Italian-Anglo-Japanese GCAP fighter program

Saudi Arabia is lobbying the UK, Japan and Italy to allow it to become a full partner in the landmark next-generation fighter jet project the three countries signed on in December, the Financial Times reported. referred to as GCAP .

The request, confirmed by five senior officials in London, Tokyo and Rome, has already created tensions within the trinational alliance: in fact, the United Kingdom and Italy are open to the idea of ​​Saudi membership, Japan is firmly opposed and made his position clear to the other two.

The Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), which aims to deliver a highly advanced and exportable combat aircraft by 2035, was a significant advance for all three signatories, especially for Japan which had historically limited defense exports and has never collaborated on a program of this scale and complexity.

Saudi Arabia's efforts to join the GCAP and expand the program into a four-nation project have ramped up significantly in recent weeks, according to officials in London and Tokyo. These efforts included a direct request to Japan's government in July when Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah.
Saudi involvement would also result in a potentially significant financial contribution to a project estimated to cost in the tens of billions of dollars, people knowledgeable on the matter said.

A senior UK defense source confirmed this, stating: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the UK's strategic partnerships and UK Defense is keen to further work on GCAP. We see Saudi Arabia as a key partner in the hunting program and are working to secure strong progress as soon as possible."

Japan lifted its 10-year ban on arms exports in 2014 and is discussing easing restrictions to allow it to reach more overseas markets with GCAP. But Japanese officials say adding Saudi Arabia to the mix would further complicate discussions about which countries Tokyo can sell its weapons to.

A fourth member would also complicate negotiations on a project that already has a tight deadline. A person familiar with the talks said Japan was focused on delivering a plane by 2035 and was concerned that Saudi involvement now would create delays.

Despite Italy's and the UK's timid support for Saudi membership, there are two sticking points:

• the first is related to the technological offer that can bring the Kingdom to the project;
• there are therefore problems on the security of related information, given that the two initial partners had already asked Japan to improve its information security before accessing the project.

But at the same time, the agreement would give a big boost, from a financial point of view, to the project which could advance much more quickly on its way with the coaxed money.

Participating countries are currently preparing the Tempest technology demonstrator which is expected to fly by 2027i.

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The article Saudi Arabia wants to join the Italian-Anglo-Japanese GCAP fighter program comes from Scenari Economici .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/arabia-italia-uk-giappone-caccia-gcap/ on Sat, 12 Aug 2023 05:30:02 +0000.