United Kingdom, Japan, and Italy are spearheading a global effort to create a stealthy sixth-generation fighter aircraft called the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP). The program’s ultimate goal is to retire the ageing fleets of Eurofighter Typhoons and Mitsubishi F-2s from the Royal Air Force, the Air Force of Italy, and the Air Self-Defense Force of Japan. The governments of Japan, the United Kingdom, and Italy announced on December 9, 2022 that they would build and deploy a shared fighter jet, integrating their respective sixth-generation projects, the United Kingdom-led BAE Systems Tempest and the Japanese Mitsubishi F-X.
