Leonardo CEO Eyes Expedited GCAP Entry Into Service | Aviation International News

Leonardo CEO Eyes Expedited GCAP Entry Into Service

Accelerated timeline would likely impact initial air combat capabilities

Edgewing/GCAP — Welcome to your future fighter: a full-scale mock-up of a representative GCAP design is on show outside the joint Edgewing/GCAP Agency display next to Hall 5. © David McIntosh/AIN

By Charlotte Bailey • News Reporter

August 3, 2026

Leonardo’s CEO Lorenzo Mariani has suggested that the multi-national Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) could become operational “a couple of years” ahead of its stated 2035 entry into service timeline, albeit with likely modifications to initial capabilities. Speaking during the Italian aerospace and defense group’s second quarter earnings call on July 31, he acknowledged what he termed “quite a strong push” to bring GCAP’s future fighter concept into service sooner.

This expedited timeline “is something that has been said in [ministerial] meetings and has been motivated correctly, in my view, by the urgency of having such [a] multi-domain system starting to operate as quickly as possible, as early as possible,” Mariani suggested.

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