The milestone: Rolls-Royce, Avio Aero, and IHI completed design reviews on their GCAP engine demonstrator, moving toward ground testing to de-risk the propulsion programme. The work applies lessons from Rolls-Royce's Orpheus demonstrator, scaling agile engineering methods internationally across the trilateral consortium.
Parallel track: Rolls-Royce is separately supplying two modified EJ200 engines for the UK's Future Combat Air System demonstrator, letting BAE's Warton-built airframe fly without waiting for the next-generation engine. Team Tempest confirmed roughly half the aircraft's main structure is now in final assembly, with 11,500+ parts covering about 90% of aircraft weight.
Programme context: GCAP, formed December 2022 between the UK, Italy, and Japan, targets a sixth-generation fighter in service around 2035, replacing Typhoon and Japan's F-2. Propulsion is structured trilaterally by nation, with the completed design reviews marking convergence toward a single common engine configuration ahead of hardware testing.
