Canada joins UK-Italy-Japan sixth-generation fighter jet programme

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LONDON — Britain, Japan and Italy are bringing Canada in on their project to field a sixth-generation fighter jet by 2035, defense ministers from the nations announced jointly on Tuesday.

The move to include Ottawa as an observer nation — as first reported by POLITICO last week — is meant to strengthen middle-power supply chains.

It marks the first move in the job by Britain’s new defense chief Wes Streeting, after Prime Minister Andy Burnham appointed him late Monday.

“My focus is on maximizing our deterrence and ensuring that should deterrence fail, we’re ready to fight and win alongside allies,” Defence Secretary Streeting said alongside his counterparts from Italy, Japan and Canada near Buckingham Palace as they announced Ottawa’s observer role.

The Global Combat Air Programme means “reindustrialization and building back up our production capacity, so we can give our armed forces the kit they need, as well as building and buying British, so that we deliver good jobs in communities in every part of our country,” Streeting said.

On the steps of Downing Street on Monday, Burnham — who took over from Keir Starmer this week — promised that “reindustrializing Britain” will be a key focus as PM. “We are going to honor our commitments on defense — and use that investment to transform people’s lives,” Burnham said in a statement on the fighter jet project.

The British government earmarked £8.6 billion for the jet over the next four years in its Defence Investment Plan.

The sixth-gen fighter jet already supports 4,500 jobs in the U.K. at about 600 different firms in the supply chain throughout the country.

As the first observer nation to join the project, “Canada will gain direct insight and privileged access into GCAP, including capability development, industrial collaboration, and long-term delivery plans,” Streeting said. While there is “no commitment” for Canada to buy the jet, he added later, it will set a pathway for discussions with Canada about its aerospace and manufacturing base contributing to the project.

Canada’s aerospace and defense sector is “ready to help” meet the challenge, Canadian Minister of National Defence David McGuinty told Streeting and his Italian and Japanese counterparts Guido Crosetto and Shinjirō Koizumi.

“Observer status will give Canada the opportunity to deepen its understanding of next-generation combat air capabilities, strengthen our industrial collaboration, and contribute more closely to the partnerships that will define the future of air power,” McGuinty said.

The project is “an investment in technologies that don’t exist yet,” Crosetto said through an interpreter.

Canada’s geographic position between the Indo-Pacific and the Euro-Atlantic underscores the “inseparable” shared security between the two regions, Koizumi explained.