Japan, Britain and Italy to build joint jet fighter

FILE PHOTO: Britain's defence minister, Gavin Wiliamson (UNSEEN), unveiled a model of a new jet fighter, called 'Tempest' at the Farnborough Airshow, in Farnborough, Britain July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

TOKYO/LONDON (Reuters) - Japan, Britain and Italy are merging their next-generation jet fighter projects in a ground-breaking partnership spanning Europe and Asia that is Japan's first major industrial defence collaboration beyond the United States since World War Two.

The deal, which Reuters reported in July, aims to put an advanced front-line fighter into operation by 2035 by combining the British-led Future Combat Air System project, also known as Tempest, with Japan's F-X programme in a venture called the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), the three countries said in a statement on Friday.