Canada has joined the Global Combat Air Programme as its first Observer Nation, the Ministry of Defence has announced, with the UK, Italy and Japan opening the door to future Canadian participation in the sixth-generation fighter effort in an announcement made on Wes Streeting’s first day as Defence Secretary.
The announcement came as Streeting hosted his Japanese, Italian and Canadian counterparts, Shinjirō Koizumi, Guido Crosetto and David McGuinty, at Wellington Barracks in London. Canada will gain direct insight into GCAP, including capability development, industrial collaboration and long-term delivery plans, through structured engagement with the partner nations, and while it will not have a decision-making role, the MoD says observer status gives Ottawa privileged access to the programme and paves the way for discussions on Canada’s future participation and contribution.
“The first duty of any government is to keep our country safe. That’s why I’m pushing this programme forward on my very first day in the job. GCAP continues to strengthen our security, drive technological innovation and create highly skilled jobs across the UK,” Streeting said, as quoted in the announcement. “We are proud to welcome Canada to this new phase of engagement and look forward to sharing expertise and working on technological advances as we continue to deliver this groundbreaking programme.”
Prime Minister Andy Burnham tied the announcement to his first commitments in office. “As I said on the steps of Downing Street, we are going to honour our commitments on defence – and use that investment to transform people’s lives. And we are going to work even more closely with our allies,” he said, as quoted in the announcement. “So today, we are not just recommitting to our state-of-the-art GCAP fighter programme – but I am delighted to announce that Canada will join the programme as the first Observer Nation. GCAP is already one of the world’s most ambitious defence and industrial partnerships – supporting 4,500 jobs across the UK. Today’s announcement makes it even stronger.”
The move builds on decades of collaboration between the UK and Canada as Five Eyes members and NATO allies, and folds Ottawa into a programme delivering a sixth-generation aircraft designed to operate alongside capabilities including the F-35, using advanced autonomy, AI, uncrewed systems and next-generation sensors to maintain air superiority. Canada has been weighing its future fighter arrangements amid a publicly troubled relationship with its F-35 purchase, making a structured window into the leading non-American sixth-generation effort a significant hedge, and observer status creates the first formal mechanism for a fourth nation to draw close to a partnership whose founders have previously fielded interest from countries including Saudi Arabia.
Great news, bringing Canada onboard even just as an observer isn’t to be sniffed at.
Australia next? Given their location a long range stealthy medium bomber could be attractive.
It’s an ideal platform for their needs. They either use a platform like Gripen that can be used from numerous scattered bases or they use a very highly capable, large long range platform that can cruise and scan over very large areas for long periods in a very fused manner. I think that Canada will get the Gripen to use in the way it does best, use a small number of F-35s for the higher end capability and then in the later thirties if all goes well gradually supplement and then gradually replace all or most with Tempest. But obviously Tempest has to prove itself, but it’s the clear and obvious choice as things stand. Now will this bring others to the table too and if so when.
A 21st Century AVRO Arrow
Yes, Tempest is that big!
Yep it was not just the UK that essentially shot its own airo industry in the head in around the 1960s
That very much is still in all the consciousness of Canadians. The Canadian version of the Tempest could be called the ‘C-50 Arrow’
May they be the first of many
Hopefully, and I think there is a real chance of making gcap a real success. Realpolitik will always come into it tho…Tempest looks ideal for Australia, for example, but if they were to ever seriously think about buying it, the US would soon threaten them with withholding submarine transfers under AUKUS…
Great a defence sec with no experience. At least Jarvo had credibility even though he was an ex Pongo
It doesn’t have to be a problem IF he listens to those who do have experience.
I don’t agree, I don’t see why not being ex military means Streeting will be a failure.
DoH ministers are not surgeons or doctors.
The minister in charge of the DoT isn’t a train driver.
Streeting is a high profile figure t in Labour whose run a big Department of State before.
He’s needed to sort out waste and fight for the Department, which I believe as an ambitious politician who wanted the top job he will do.
Let the military provide the expertise in military matters.
I’m hopeful he will be a success.
So far, I’m agreeing with everything Burnham has done, and agree with his desire for reindustrialisation, hopefully by military investment.
Agreed 👍
Yes to be honest you actually don’t want an expert at the very top.. especially in very complex and wide ranging areas.. because nobody can be a true expert in all areas of a profoundly complex system and experts have bias created by the developed of their own experience and expertise..
You want your experts sitting in the head guy’s pockets giving him all the options and potential compromises..
Let’s be honest if your defence secretary is and ex army, navy or airforce they will have an inbuilt bias no matter how hard they try to be balanced… same with Drs in the NHS one of the worst things the Tories in the 2011 NHS reforms was to give decision making powers over the whole system to Drs very specificity GPs.. they were a nightmare, always promoting the medical models not seeing even other fields of medicines views, let alone Nurses, physios, pharmacists, managers and patients… it caused no end of pain and stopped the NHS truly reforming in the 2011-2024 timeframe.. until Labour booted them back to their practices.
What you want at the top is a shrewd politician that can get you more money from the treasury.
Which may be what we have now that Healey is chancellor.
Agreed. Streeting is a loud mouth who claimed he was going to sort out the NHS. He didn’t even resolve the doctor’s dispute, before resigning to stab Starmer in the back. A disaster for defence is what he will be.
He actually did and has completely changed the NHS.
1) 16.5% reduction in DOH staff
2) 50% reduction in NHSE and ICB staff.. ( we are talking 10,000 thousands of senior managers made redundant)
3) he was cutting the Number of ICBs by about 50% and had completed cut all NHSE regional teams..
4) The total cull of the NHS bureaucracy will save 1 billion a year..
No other politician has ever had the balls to essentially sack almost 20,000 NHS managers and administrators.
But not only that he’s moving huge numbers of the clinician managers who had moved over to the bureaucracy back to front line services.. trying getting a job as a nurse at present you can’t because of all the NHSE and ICB nurses being redeployed to trusts.
A very very effective if brutal health secretary.. and I don’t like him as he’s made a load of my friends redundant.
Wasn’t stripping the NHS England layer out of the NHS organisation a manifesto commitment? I can see Burnham aligning the health boards with reorganised, devolved local authorities. Devolve the NHS, align it with social care and local taxation.
Yes but he went well beyond that he’s also essentially cutting the number of integrated care boards by about half… big move.
Why do you think that?
Just extrapolating from Burnham’s devolution ideas. A ‘region’ like Greater Manchester has population of just under 3 million. For comparison Wales is 3 million, NI is 2 million, Scotland 6 million, London 9 million, West Midlands 6 million.
The argument is that these places are sufficiently unique in geography, culture and history to constitute distinct identifiable socially coherent economic units. So, an optimum political organisation of the country would give them control of the essentials – housing, local transport, health, social care, education and training. Perhaps local taxation. Obviously you would need some national standards and mechanism for levelling out budgets so wealthy regions subsidise deprived regions. Motorways, intercity rail and Heathroe are national but buses, trams, regional airports would be local. The idea would be that the economies of the deprived regions would strengthen over time. At the moment the trajectory of current political and economic model is set on widening wealth gaps between regions. Taking Manchester as his example Burnham sees a way to reverse this. Hence his catchphrase ‘ good growth in every postcode’ . The strategy is bottom up organic growth, not top down pseudo feudal sharing out from Westminster and Whitehall.
Wow, how cone the strikes and bbc etc not kick up more of a fuss?
Sorry, how come their were not strikes and bbc didnt kick up of huge fuss? Due to it being Labour?
The management structures are not unionised.
Good point!
Streeting is a lucky man. He will get the credit for work done by his predecessors like Healy and a decision I suspect probably already taken by Burnham to raise defence spending. As regards funding I think Mc Fadden will push through some savings in benefits spending and there will be increases in capital gains tax and / or property or land taxes. The national shipbuilding strategy is coming good – export orders for T26, T31, UK build of 8 MRSS. Ajax was a fiasco but UK Boxer and RBSL are driving re-industrialisation and we are in a decent position with respect to the next european MBT. AUKUS subs, RR reactors, GCAP, Babcock Jackals and likely Patrias – all good. I’m guessing the Landrover replacement will probably be UK built. There are deals to be done with Leonardo for UK assembly of AW149 and hopefully M346, both of which will be good export earners and will create good UK jobs and pay packets which will fund taxation and grow the economy. If he has any sense Streeting will strap in and enjoy the ride.
Trumps attitude to his allies has gone way beyond legitimate chastisement for over reliance on the US and is far better than any sales patter inviting nations to get involved and purchasing GCAP.
Keep it up Donald.
Great news, America can be allowed to buy a watered down tempest export ‘no cards’ version.
Political spin aside, this is encouraging news. Fingers crossed it will result in orders in the future.
Excellent news. Just what Canada will need in thr future.
So are they paying into the program to be a observer?!
Is Canada joining good news? I saw a news report suggesting Canadian companies might get or want a share of the work? Which we don’t need, it will be more delays with unrealistic demands, followed by whining about the cost. Look at the horlicks their ‘type 26’ has turned into. The only reason they are here is because FCAS is dead and the politics involved with the yanks is difficult. Sell it to them but on our terms, when it’s ready.
“saw a news report suggesting Canadian companies might get or want a share of the work?”
No you didn’t. Because countries with observer status are never given that.
Canada has very deep pockets and a very competent defence sector
Does it? Is that why their navy is even more shagged out than ours.
Canada has invested little in Defence, but it can afford to, and is now spending more.
It’s hit 2% this year, and is on track to hit 3.5% end of the decade and 5% after that.
Canada recorded a Government Debt to GDP of 113.50 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product in 2025.
Meaningless – go look up Japans Debt to GDP and their huge armed Forces
People often forget Japanese debt… but it has structured it very very differently..
Essentially Japan does not go to the international bond market.. its own citizens buy national debt as well as it’s central bank.. basically most Japanese debt is kept within Japan and just for kicks the Japanese government artificially lowers its interest rates to as close to zero percent as possible.. so all that debt cost almost nothing.. the UK is paying 5% on a lot of its debt to the international money markets…
People tend to forget that Japan has a very “unwritten” controlled economy.. government has what it calls “administrative guidance” over its financial and all major industries.. essentially Japanese business are run for the strategic good of the Japanese Nation… they don’t do a Dyson.
There ya go, interest rates.
Compared to the UK, Canadas rates are much lower – the UK is facing economic disaster barring a miracle
The uk has the second lowest debt in the G7
Jonathan.
Japan has a staggering amount of national debt, over 260% of its GDP, which should theoretically bankrupt them. But it doesn’t, because of two distinct factors.
Roughly 90% of Japan’s debt is owned internally by Japanese institutions, citizens, and the Bank of Japan. They aren’t at the mercy of foreign investors who might panic and demand higher returns.
however, global inflation pressures and structural economic changes have broken the spell. The Bank of Japan officially dismantled its negative interest rate and ‘Yield Curve Control’ policies. The BOJ’s benchmark policy rate has climbed to 1%, its highest level since 1995, and market driven 10 year government bond yields have risen well past 2.7%.
Because they control their own market so tightly, Japan has spent years keeping interest rates near 0%. Even as they slowly nudge rates up to combat modern inflation, their borrowing costs are a tiny fraction of the UK’s.
This “cheat code” worked for nearly thirty years because of Japan’s incredibly insular, deflationary financial system. But even they have ultimately been forced to rejoin the rest of the world in a higher interest rate environment.
The UK owes most of its money to the private sector – 45% to 50% is owned by the UK private sector, these are domestic UK pension funds, insurance companies, commercial banks, and everyday British citizens holding premium bonds.
– 20% to 30% is owned by the Bank of England, the UK’s own central bank, which bought up massive amounts of government debt over the last 15 years to stabilize the economy through the ‘magical but dubious’ process called ‘Quantitative Easing’.
– 25% to 30% is owned by overseas investors, these are foreign banks, international investment trusts, and overseas central banks. Now that figure, while normal compared to places like the US or France, the UK’s foreign debt share has doubled over the last twenty years and sits noticeably higher than the advanced economy average of around 18%.
Have you seen what is being built and being purchased lately for the RCN?
15x Type 26 River Class Destroyers
12x Type 212CD Submarines
16-20x Continental Defence Corvettes are on the horizon for a project kick off soon to replace the 12 Kingston Class minesweepers.
6x Arctic OPVs were just completed this year.
Also the numerous RCAF and Army procurement projects that the Canadian Armed Forces has launched in the last year for additional aircraft armor and artillery/drone systems.
What exactly is “observer” status. Sounds a bit like they get VIP access and first dibs if it works, but lose nothing if it doesn’t.
Canada gets privileged access, along with no decision-making ability. And, no need to fund anything in the project until they sign on.
Canada obviously have to pay a couple millions to be an observer.
It just means you gain access to confidential program data that lets you make informed decisions on purchase, its tier 3 in F35 program.
Great news…. It’s all coming together rather well Isn’t It ?
That sounds like a lets wait out trump and make a decision after as to whether to realign with the US or find other options.
There will always be a Canadian investment with the US on defence but not like it was.
The goal is to get below 50 % kit purchases in the next decade.
Goodish news at last. I don’t think they will but I do hope Europe Canada and others don’t re-embrace the treacherous North American colonies once Trump goes to prison or hell, don’t care which. The American people elected that twat and congress did nothing to suppress him so it has to be a given that we never ever ever go back to the fantasy we all lived through that Yanks are our friends, they are not and never were, we were just their best customers.