Japan has ‘no concerns’ over rumoured hitch in joint fighter jet plans

However, experts say there is no hard evidence that London would ax the GCAP project, and that Pollard couldn’t have answered any other way in advance of a defense review that must be allowed to look at all the issues without prior restriction. “There is no basis for expecting the U.K. will back out or drop out of GCAP,” said Philip Shetler-Jones, an international security expert with the London-based RUSI think tank. “The media reports seem to have taken a misleading impression from a comment by a treasury official, and put it together with a comment from the government’s defense team about no commitments being made in advance of the defense review.”... Simon Chelton, an associate fellow also with RUSI, said that instead of dropping out, London’s focus will likely be on making sure the project can develop and maintain an “affordable” next-generation air capability.