{"id":249080,"date":"2025-07-08T22:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T22:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/249080\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T22:00:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T22:00:13","slug":"trilateral-flagship-air-defence-headquarters-major-boost-for-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/249080\/","title":{"rendered":"Trilateral flagship air defence headquarters major boost for Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK has bolstered its air defence after the opening of a global headquarters, bringing some of the best minds across the world to deliver a next-generation stealth fighter jet. <\/p>\n

The global HQ, which opened in Reading on Monday, is a significant milestone for the Global Combat Air Programme (CGAP) \u2013 between the UK, Japan and Italy.<\/p>\n

Defence Secretary John Healey said the facility \u201cunderlines the UK\u2019s full commitment to GCAP and demonstrates the steps\u201d the country is taking with its partners to deliver for defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Strategic Defence Review captured that GCAP will deliver more than cutting-edge military capabilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt already supports over 3,500 UK jobs, with many more to follow as the programme develops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Healey said the facility \u201cis also sustaining a world-leading skilled workforce for the UK\u2019s combat air industry and delivering on the government\u2019s Plan for Change\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this work we are helping to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of combat air power innovation for decades to come and that defence is engine for growth across the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The facility will host the GCAP International Government Organisation (GIGO) along with joint venture company, Edgewing which is responsible for the design and development of the aircraft.<\/p>\n

\"GCAP<\/p>\n

Defence Procurement Minister Maria Eagle cutting the ribbon as the new Global Combat Air Programme HQ was opened in Reading on Monday<\/p>\n

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE<\/p>\n

It will bring together three industry partners \u2013 UK\u2019s BAE Systems, Italy\u2019s Leonardo, and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co. Ltd.<\/p>\n

The facility, which was opened by Defence Procurement Minister Maria Eagle, will help deliver the GCAP programme by bringing together the best minds from three different countries.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Defence indicated that it would help drive innovation and strengthen each country\u2019s combat air industrial capability, supporting the vision of the Strategic Defence Review.<\/p>\n

The opening comes on the same day Healey met virtually with Italy\u2019s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto and Japan\u2019s Defence Minister Gen Nakatani to discuss the GCAP\u2019s latest progress.<\/p>\n

\"GCAP<\/p>\n

The GCAP HQ will deliver thousands of jobs over the coming years<\/p>\n

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Defence said it was already creating thousands of highly skilled jobs across the UK, Japan and Italy, including new apprentice and graduate roles.<\/p>\n

The MoD also highlighted it was also supporting the strong relationship between industry and the Armed Forces of the three nations.<\/p>\n

More than 3,500 people, including engineers and programmers, are already working on GCAP in the UK with a further 1,000 undertaking related apprenticeships or training schemes.<\/p>\n

The MoD said many more will follow as the programme develops.<\/p>\n

It indicated that it also demonstrated the UK Government\u2019s commitment to keep the UK secure at home and strong abroad.<\/p>\n

It comes after Labour announced a historic commitment to increase defence spending to 2.6 per cent of GDP by 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK has bolstered its air defence after the opening of a global headquarters, bringing some of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,1259,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-249080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-uk-news","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114819866777469443","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}