Germany is weighing a role in the UK-Italy-Japan Global Combat Air Programme, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said, as Airbus prepares talks with BAE Systems on contributing to the fighter effort.
Speaking in Tokyo on October 28, at a business summit and at a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Merz said Berlin was assessing all of its options.
He said talks among the three existing partners on dividing industrial work were already at an advanced stage, and cautioned that Germany might not be ready to decide by the start of 2027, as Japan hopes.
GCAP is developing a stealth fighter due to enter service in 2035, with industrial work led by Edgewing, a joint venture of BAE Systems, Leonardo, and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co. A German bid would bring a fourth country into a program whose partners are already standing up engineering sites and splitting work.
Airbus executives are expected to meet counterparts at BAE to discuss how the company could contribute, the Financial Times reported, citing four people familiar with the matter. Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told reporters on October 28 that GCAP was one potential solution among several, that Airbus is working closely with Berlin and Madrid on a next-generation fighter, and that the decision belongs to governments and should ideally come soon.
The UK opened the door earlier in October. “I’ve indicated to the chancellor our openness to Germany joining GCAP,” Prime Minister Andy Burnham said at a press conference with Merz in Berlin on October 8. Downing Street said the two leaders discussed possible German participation in the program, and Burnham said he would take the idea forward with Italy and Japan.
Germany’s interest follows the breakdown of the Franco-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System. Merz told French President Emmanuel Macron on June 6 that the two countries would not build a shared New Generation Fighter, after Airbus and Dassault Aviation failed to settle their dispute over work on the jet. Joint work on the FCAS combat cloud was set to continue, and other parts of the effort, such as an FCAS combat drone, have kept moving. India has also explored both programs.
Merz said the German and Japanese defense ministers will meet soon to discuss the matter.