“President Macron and the Chancellor have come to the shared conclusion that the companies involved are unable to reach an agreement on the construction of a joint fighter aircraft,” the official told Euractiv.
“Chancellor Merz has therefore advised President Macron not to pursue the construction of a joint fighter aircraft any further. The core of FCAS is to be continued as a European system of systems. This is, in a sense, the nervous system that links aircraft, drones and other components into an integrated whole,” the official added.
The French government had not responded to a request for comment by the time of publication. German media also reported on Monday that the programme was being scrapped.
The FCAS project, valued at €100 billion and launched in 2017, has been stalled for more than a year. Its prime contractors, Dassault Aviation for France and Airbus Defence and Space for Germany, were unable to resolve leadership disagreements.
The gap between the German and French concepts for the future fighter aircraft was also too wide to close. Chancellor Merz recently said Germany had different needs from France, which required an aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons, while Berlin had been seeking a long-range bomber.
In recent months, Airbus suggested separating the fighter aircraft element from the wider aerial combat system. That approach would allow Germany and France to develop their own aircraft while using the same underlying cloud software to improve interoperability.
The two defence ministries have now been tasked with preparing a joint work plan for defence industrial cooperation. The work would focus on “a few realistic, relevant projects”, the German official said.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the German chair of the European Parliament’s security and defence committee, said the announcement “does not come as a surprise”. She blamed France’s Dassault for the project’s failure.
“The good news is: this money is not lost. The first tranche went into basic research, and we will continue to build on that foundation,” Strack-Zimmermann wrote on X. She added that another European partnership involving the UK, Sweden and Spain offers “a viable alternative”.
“Now the implementation must be right as well. This is about Europe’s security. We must finally put an end to national fragmentation and act in the interest of our continent,” she said.
Source: Euractiv.
