The chief executive of BAE Systems has told Sky News that, while the programme to build the UK’s planned sixth-generation fighter jet is expensive, it will be vital for the country’s future defence requirements and for creating tens of thousands of skilled jobs.
Charles Woodburn was speaking on day one of the Farnborough Air Show amid speculation that the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), nicknamed Tempest in the UK, could be at risk in the forthcoming Strategic Defence Review.
He said: “GCAP is an incredibly important programme for the UK, in military air capability. There’s in excess of 50,000 jobs, very high quality jobs around the UK, in the military air sector. GCAP is the future.
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“We know programmes such as GCAP are expensive programmes, which is why working in partnership with like minded allies like Japan and Italy is so important because there you’re able to share the cost and share the capabilities across multiple like minded allies.
“And we’ve got a very strong partnership, which is really driving this programme forward.”
Tempest was first unveiled in 2018 as a successor to the Typhoon and to previous generations of jet fighters such as the Tornado.
GCAP has subsequently become an important element of UK diplomatic policy, as well as UK manufacturing, as a number of international defence contractors including Leonardo, the Italian parent company of helicopter maker Agusta Westland and Saab, Sweden’s leading defence contractor, joined Team Tempest.
Two years ago, Japan agreed to merge its own sixth generation jet fighter programme, Mitsubishi F-X, with Tempest, bringing on board Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as a prime contractor.
And the diplomatic importance of GCAP was underlined when, in December last year, Rishi Sunak’s government formally signed an international treaty with Italy and Japan confirming that the project would be headquartered in the UK.
Minoru Kihara, the Japanese defence minister, was due to be attending a trilateral ministerial meeting this week with John Healey, the new Secretary of State for Defence, and their Italian counterpart.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, later made reference to that meeting when, during his visit to Farnborough, he was asked about GCAP.
He told reporters: “It’s important for me to put on record just how important a programme this is…I know that people in the room will want to hear me say that.
“The defence secretary is holding a ministerial level meeting…in relation to this because of the significant benefits here in this country.”
Mr Woodburn was speaking as the three main GCAP partners unveiled the latest concept model of the aircraft which features a much more evolved design with a wingspan larger than previous concepts – aimed at improving the aircraft’s aerodynamics.
He added: “There are quite a number of differences in the wing design and the profile of the aircraft. Obviously, we’ve been working now with our partners on this programme for the last 18 months together, and it’s evolved. And you see some of those evolutions on the design.
“So a very important day for us to be revealing that here at Farnborough. There’s a lot to see on our stand here. And obviously with the new government here, we’ve got cabinet ministers and the PM coming to the show today, and lots to talk about.”
Mr Woodburn also addressed concerns in Australia that BAE, the UK’s biggest defence contractor, is making a greater priority of completing submarines for the Royal Navy under the Astute and Dreadnought programmes than it is of helping build nuclear-powered submarines for the Australian Royal Navy under the Aukus security pact between the US, the UK and Australia.
He said: “Aukus is a huge priority for us as a business and as a country and as a company. It’s the next generation attack submarine that we’re going to be developing with Australia and the US and, from the UK’s perspective that succeeds the Astute boats.
BAE’s vast defence interests include the Royal Navy’s Astute-class submarines. Pic: PA
“One thing that they [the US, the UK and Australia] all need are more of nuclear powered hunter killers or attack submarines.
“So it’s a huge priority for the UK. As a direct result, it’s getting a lot of attention, which bodes well for the overall programme for both the UK and Australia.”
Mr Woodburn insisted that US president Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of this year’s presidential election would have little impact on BAE, whose US arm is one of the biggest contractors to the Pentagon.
He added: “We’ve always enjoyed, broad bipartisan support for defence, in the US. And we expect that to continue. We, as a company, obviously will work for whoever’s the democratically elected government of the day. So I don’t see it having a significant impact on us as a business.”
Sir Keir was at Farnborough to launch a new body, Skills England, which the government hopes will address the UK’s skills shortage.
BAE, which has doubled the number of apprenticeships and graduates it hires during the last three years, is a key player in that.
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Mr Woodburn said: “We now have in excess of 5,500 graduates and apprentices in training in the UK and our intake, this year, is going to be 2,700…across all areas [of the company].
“Sadly, because of the increased threat environment that the world is now seeing, the demand for our products and services is increasing – and we need to be ready to support that.
“We’re a long cycle business. We have long term programmes and we have outstanding early careers programmes.
“Our apprentices, for example, come in, they learn a trade, they learn a skill and they can look forward to a lifetime of high quality employment with us, obviously providing they perform.
“Our apprentice programmes tend to be very oversubscribed – and one of my plans is to try and make sure that we broaden that as much as we can because, given the long term nature of our business, it behoves us to train our train our workforce for the future.”