Japan grows restless for next-gen fighter jets as progress with UK, Italy stalls

Japan finds its ageing aircraft outmatched by China’s advanced stealth jets amid setbacks to the trilateral Global Combat Air Programme

At an airbase outside Tokyo, engineers inspect the ageing F-2 fighters that have patrolled the Japanese skies for decades.

The sixth-generation fighter, part of the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), is slated to enter service with all three nations by 2035. But development is reportedly lagging, with the first demonstrator flight now delayed until 2027 – a setback that has alarmed Japanese officials and defence analysts.