UK, Italy, Japan award £4.6 billion contract to advance GCAP fighter jet

LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) - Britain, Italy and Japan awarded a £4.6 billion ($6.14 billion) contract to industry joint venture Edgewing to build the new Global Combat Air Programme fighter jet, the UK government said on Friday, advancing the project to the next phase of development.

After nine months of delays over its squeezed military budget, Britain committed on Tuesday £8.6 billion over four years to GCAP, providing its share of the funding for the tri-nation project as part of efforts to boost defence. 

"The Global Combat Air Programme will give our pilots a cutting-edge stealth fighter jet. Signing this £4.6 billion contract alongside Italy and Japan is a major step forward towards delivery," Luke Pollard, Britain's minister for defence readiness, said in a statement.

The contract award comes after a rival Franco-German fighter programme collapsed in June, leaving European defence alliances in flux, and making it more likely that another country could seek to join GCAP. 

BAE Systems in Britain, Leonardo in Italy and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan are developing GCAP, a sixth-generation stealth fighter that the countries want ready by 2035.

Through GCAP, also known as Tempest in the UK, the countries can share tens of billions of dollars in costs to build an advanced fighter jet and secure more orders. They will also look to international markets to boost sales.

The Italian defence minister said in June that opening GCAP to other nations would help share that cost, and Leonardo told Reuters Germany would be a particularly valid partner given its expertise. Saudi Arabia and Canada have also looked at GCAP.

Any GCAP expansion would require the agreement of its three founding members, and executives have previously said there could be opportunities to join later at varying levels of involvement. 

The joint venture developing GCAP is named Edgewing, which is jointly owned by BAE, Leonardo and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement. Its headquarters are in Britain, with a CEO from Italy.

BAE has previously said GCAP would be three to four metres (10 to 13 feet) longer than the Typhoon military jet and designed to fly a longer range.

($1 = 0.7488 pounds)

(Reporting by Sarah YoungEditing by Rod Nickel)