The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP)—the joint sixth-generation stealth fighter project uniting the United Kingdom, Japan, and Italy—is navigating a highly turbulent phase.
While initially forged as a tightly knit trilateral alliance, the ambitious initiative is now grappling with funding bottlenecks, differing strategic goals, and a widening search for new partners, notably India.
These hurdles increasingly threaten the consortium's target of delivering an operational, combat-ready...