Edgewing, the joint venture company established to design and deliver the Italy-Japan-UK Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) aircraft, has opened a new engineering facility in Turin, Italy. The site will sustain thousands of highly skilled engineering jobs in the region, with its workforce and supply chain contributing to the development of the next-generation combat aircraft for Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.

The new fighter is being designed with cutting-edge sensing and communications, AI support for pilots and the latest stealth technology. Edgewing says it will be able to contribute directly to missions, delivering long-range surveillance and strike in heavily contested airspace, as well as directing drones and other assets in battle as a flying “team captain” contributing to the wider operating picture.

Turin is the first additional Edgewing site to open for engineering activities since the joint GCAP Agency-Edgewing headquarters was established in Reading, UK, in 2025, and is the first of three planned facilities, with sites in Japan and the UK due to open in the coming months; all three will play the same role as engineering hubs contributing to the programme’s delivery. The Turin site’s initial cohort comprises secondees from Edgewing’s three partner companies, some of whom have relocated their lives and families from as far away as Japan, some 10,000 kilometres away.

“Our new site in Italy is the latest step in Edgewing’s rapid growth as an organisation, as we scale up the company across our three nations. Ready to disrupt the defence industry by delivering dramatically quicker than previous-generation programmes, the innovation and energy we can access here in Turin will underpin our acceleration,” said Marco Zoff, CEO of Edgewing. “GCAP represents the next generation of technology, and this new site represents an opportunity for many to join Edgewing and work on some of the world’s most advanced digitally-driven engineering. I look forward to welcoming colleagues from across our three partner nations to Turin as we embark on this journey together,” said Giuseppe Lupoli, General Manager of Edgewing in Italy.

“GCAP will ensure technological sovereignty for generations to come and I am proud that hundreds of engineers here in Turin, and thousands more around the country, will contribute to its success. Leonardo is proud to support Edgewing as the programme continues to drive technological development and long-term economic growth,” said Lorenzo Mariani, CEO and General Manager of Leonardo.

Edgewing launched in 2025 as the industrial lead and design authority for the GCAP aircraft and has this year signed international contracts worth more than €6 billion with the three-nation GCAP Agency; as it works through the programme’s advanced concept and assessment phase, the company is rapidly scaling, bringing work together from the three national programmes. Edgewing is equally owned by BAE Systems (UK), Leonardo (Italy) and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co. Ltd. (JAIEC, Japan); in Italy, the new site is located alongside Leonardo, drawing on the company’s history of combat air technology research and development in Turin.