{"id":139324,"date":"2026-07-22T11:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/139324\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T11:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:18:08","slug":"canada-becomes-first-observer-to-british-italian-japanese-gcap-fighter-jet-project-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/139324\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada becomes first observer to British-Italian-Japanese GCAP fighter jet project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Canada has been given a front-row seat to a British-Italian-Japanese effort to develop a sixth-generation fighter aircraft, allowing Ottawa to diversify its defence partnerships as the US and China vie for an edge in future air power.<\/p>\n<p>In London on Tuesday, Canadian Defence Minister David McGuinty joined his British, Italian and Japanese counterparts \u2013 Wes Streeting, Guido Crosetto and Shinjiro Koizumi \u2013 to sign Canada up as an observer of the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/politics\/article\/3355617\/reality-check-japan-britains-funding-shortfall-threatens-fighter-jet-project?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">It marks the first expansion of the programme \u2013 which aims to develop a next-generation combat aircraft by 2035 \u2013 beyond its three founding members since GCAP was launched in December 2022.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The arrangement, which is designed to help Ottawa determine its potential future participation, grants Canada \u201cenhanced insight\u201d into GCAP\u2019s governance, capabilities, industrial framework and security requirements without conferring a decision-making role, according to a joint statement.<\/p>\n<p>What do we know about China\u2019s two next-generation aircraft?<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The status allows Canada to assess the programme\u2019s various elements \u2013 from the core aircraft and uncrewed systems to the industrial supply chain \u2013 before deciding whether to pursue deeper involvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada has been given a front-row seat to a British-Italian-Japanese effort to develop a sixth-generation fighter aircraft, allowing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[46107,45562,17,16325,45559,2080,46106,10304,46108,37140,45835,17491,26717,1307,111],"class_list":["post-139324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alessio-patalano","tag-bae-systems","tag-canada","tag-david-mcguinty","tag-edgewing","tag-f-35","tag-five-eyes","tag-gcap","tag-gigo","tag-global-combat-air-programme","tag-guido-crosetto","tag-kings-college-london","tag-leonardo","tag-london","tag-mark-carney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}