Airbus
The Future Combat Air System, at a cost of 100 billion euros, could fail if the companies developing it do not collaborate with each other
France and Germany will make one last attempt to reach an agreement on how to jointly develop a new generation fighter. The Future Combat Air System is blocked because French and German contractors cannot reach an agreement.
The Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project has been paralyzed for months due to deep differences between the French company Dassault and the German company Airbus Defense and Space, but French and German officials said this Thursday that they will try relaunch the program.
A Dassault does not accept a “co-co-co” management model and issued an ultimatum to Airbus: either they cooperate in the FCAS project, the future European combat fighter, or the most ambitious European defense program of the last decade will be terminated.
“If Airbus maintains its position of not wanting to work with Dassault, the ,” he recently stated Eric Trappierexecutive director of aerospace company Dassault Aviation.
“They they just can’t come to an agreement. Our task is to ensure that they reach an understanding and, therefore, we have decided together to launch an initiative to bring Airbus and Dassault closer together in the coming weeks”, said the French President, Emmanuel Macron, to journalists, on the sidelines of a European Council meeting.
“This It must be done in a calm and respectful mannerprecisely to identify areas of convergence”, added Macron, who met last week with Trappier and the executive president of Airbus, Guillaume Fauryto discuss the project. The topic was also discussed in a bilateral meeting between the French President and the German Chancellor on Wednesday.
“A Germany and France agreed on a final attempt of mediation between industries, to be led by experts. Taking into account the upcoming decisions on the federal budget, a result will have to be achieved by mid-April”, he told a German official.
The FCAS, which also includes Spain, is intended to replace Germany’s Eurofighters and France’s Rafale fighters by around 2040. The program includes a combat aircraft, as well as drones and a combat cloud.
The substantive dispute is a war of egos with the potential to have serious consequences for European defense. Dassault claims technical leadership of the fighter, while Airbus, which represents the interests of Germany and Spain in the consortium, refuses to accept a subordinate role.
“Dassault was named leader. I understand that Airbus does not like this decision, but we are ensuring compliance with the contract”, says Trappier. Dassault CEO says not being able to accept a “co-co-co” management modelthat is, a tripartite co-direction that, in his opinion, only paralyzes decisions.
A Fracture is not just business. The German Chancellor, Friedrich Merzfueled the crisis by stating that Berlin needed different capabilities than Paris: Germany doesn’t want a nuclear-capable fighterbut France does, which opens the door to the possibility of developing two different planes.
Although German Chancellor Friedrich Merz admits the possibility of developing two different planes, Macron has spoken out against this option.
FCAS is not just an airplane. It is an air warfare ecosystem announced almost 9 years ago and which includes three components: the NGF (Next Generation Fighter) itself, a fleet of autonomous drones that act as intelligent escorts and the so-called “combat cloud”, a real-time communications network capable of connecting all military assets in the theater of operations.
The estimated cost of the program is 100 billion euros. According to the original contract, Dassault directs NGF developmentwhile Airbus leads the drone segment — something that Trappier accepts without reservation.
