The UK’s decision to team up with Italy and Japan to build a new fighter plane
With Russia’s war in Ukraine a reminder that military force is back on the agenda, global arms sales have grown by almost two percent over the past year. But some arms deals are more significant than others, and in that category falls the UK’s decision to team up with Italy and Japan to build a new fighter plane.
As the lead designer on the aircraft, Britain’s choice of design partners tells us about where the country sees its place in the world. Details about the Tempest, as the stealthy sixth-generation jet will be called, are sketchy, but the geopolitics behind it are clearer, involving the 21st century’s two superpowers — the US and China.
From the 1970s on, collaboration with other European countries gave Britain two previous fighters — the now-retired Panavia Tornado and the current front-line Eurofighter Typhoon. The inclusion of Italy — a collaborator on both planes — continues that tradition. But more significant is the fact that the Tempest project is the first military program not to include France or Germany, Europe’s industrial heavyweights. Instead, a consortium of the latter plus Spain are working on a competing design. The UK’s decision to go its own way is another signal that post-Brexit Britain is rebalancing away from Europe.
The real surprise of the new alliance is the selection of Japan, whose F-X future fighter program is being folded into the Tempest project. Like the trilateral AUKUS defense pact announced last year between the US, UK, and Australia, the latest move gives teeth to Britain’s oft-declared intent to pivot toward Asia as Europe fades and both China and India rise. Taken together, the defense realignment signals that far from turning in on itself, the UK is serious about retaining a global role after leaving the European Union.
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