Edgewing opens engineering hub in Italy with UK site to follow

Edgewing, the joint venture leading the development of the fighter jet for the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), has opened its first engineering hub.

Located in Turin, Italy, the hub will welcome more than 300 employees by the end of 2027, with plans for further expansion beyond then. At full capacity, the site will be home to more than 1,000 workers, with employees from all three of the partner nations working at the site.

This first hub will be complemented by two more facilities in Japan and the UK. In Japan, this will be located in Nagoya, close to Japanese partner JAIEC. Here in the UK, the hub will be in Warton, Lancashire, adjacent to UK partner BAE Systems.

Laying the groundwork for a truly tri-national fighter jet

If the collapse of FCAS has taught the industry anything, it’s that partnerships only work when they are perfectly balanced.

GCAP was formed on the basis of a completely equal share between the UK, Italy and Japan, evident from the provenance of Edgewing, a joint venture that is equally owned by BAE Systems, Leonardo and JAIEC.

But sharing equally and having equal input are two different things, and the latter presents something of a challenge when the partners are located hundreds, if not thousands, of miles apart.

To tackle that problem, every element of the GCAP fighter is being designed and developed as a consortium. The propulsion programme is a collaboration between Rolls-Royce, Avio Aero and IHI, while the sensors, communications and electronics are being delivered by ELT Group, Leonardo and Mitsubishi Electric.

The engineering hubs will be an extension of that mindset, bringing together professionals from the partner companies to work together and learn from each other.

The 300 (and eventually 1,000) workers at Edgewing in Turin will be seconded from BAE Systems, Leonardo and JAIEC. Similarly, sites in the UK and Japan will welcome a mix of employees, some moving thousands of miles from their home country to be part of the programme.

This truly tri-national effort aims to bring to the programme the balance and equality that was sadly lacking in FCAS and ultimately left programme partners dissatisfied.

Warton engineering hub to open in the coming months

The UK engineering hub will be co-located with BAE Systems at its home in Warton.

BAE Systems is already making progress on the Combat Air Demonstrator, an aircraft designed to flight test many of the systems and technologies destined for the GCAP aircraft. Leonardo’s UK-based Boeing 757 testbed has also been busy testing future fighter technologies in recent months.

Edgewing said that the Warton engineering hub would open ‘in the coming months,’ without specifying a timeline. Once open, the facility will welcome professionals from Italy and Japan, as well as BAE Systems employees seconded to the programme.

Selected BAE workers will also have the opportunity to move to Italy and work with the GCAP partners under Edgewing in Turin, and eventually Nagoya too. As well as being a great opportunity for travel and development, these secondees will be working at the bleeding edge of defence engineering.

“GCAP represents the next generation of technology, and this new site represents an opportunity for many to join Edgewing and work on some of the world’s most advanced digitally-driven engineering,” said Giuseppe Lupoli, General Manager of Edgewing in Italy.

“I look forward to welcoming colleagues from across our three partner nations to Turin as we embark on this journey together.