By Angelo Amante
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's Leonardo group wants a bigger role in a next-generation fighter jet program to put it on an equal footing with its British and Japanese partners, company CEO Roberto Cingolani said on Tuesday.
The three nations agreed in December 2022 to collaborate to build an advanced front-line fighter to enter service around the middle of the next decade. The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) has Britain's BAE Systems (LON:BAES) and Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as its lead contractors.
"We have a very strong arsenal from a technical point of view ... our position needs to be revised upwards," Cingolani told reporters at a cyber tech event in Rome.
"We believe we now have much more advanced skills in certain areas. We want to put them on the table and compete as equals with British and Japanese partners," he added.
GCAP is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars but the parties have not yet finalised how the budget will be split.
Sources told Reuters in March that Britain and Japan were set to dominate the GCAP project, with Rome set to pay around only a fifth of the overall development cost.
In September, Italy's defence ministry said it will be an equal partner in the program and dismissed the report as speculative.
Cingolani, a physicist and former energy minister who took over at Leonardo in May, said GCAP partners were working intensively on the project, with several meetings scheduled in October. He said he would travel to Japan next month.
The design and function is still unclear as negotiations have made little progress, said Cingolani, but it will involve the jet controlling several drones.
"There will be a flying super-computer provided with artificial intelligence that has to control let's say 30-40 drones," he told reporters.
Cingolani confirmed that Leonardo's new industrial plan, due to be presented in March 2024, would focus more heavily on cybersecurity and space, as the two main pillars of innovation for the company.
"Then there is the conventional core business of aircraft, helicopters and electronics, which will have to be strengthened with artificial intelligence and digitalisation," he said.