Britain’s Team Tempest programme to build a new fighter jet has moved a step closer to getting into the air with Sweden poised to announce it has signed up as the project’s first international partner.

Tempest - a collaboration between industry partners BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, MBDA and Leonardo and the British government - was unveiled at the Farnborough air show last year.

The jet - planned to be in service in 2035 - is aimed at maintaining Britain as a world power in military aircraft.

UK companies will developing new technologies for the “sixth-generation” aircraft, such as the latest breakthroughs in engines, radar-defeating stealth aerodynamics and materials, advanced electronics and new weapons such as lasers.

However, Britain has made it clear that it cannot go it alone if Tempest is to become a reality.

While the UK has the technical and engineering ability to design and build Tempest, it is not economically viable for Britain to go it alone.

Without international partners who will also buy the aircraft, increasing the number that will be built, Tempest is unlikely to ever get off the drawing board.