France and Germany Scrap Joint Fighter Jet but Will Continue Core FCAS Networking Program
Chancellor Merz and President Macron agreed to end the piloted fighter portion after companies could not resolve leadership and intellectual-property disputes. Other elements of the 2017 program will continue.
France 24France and Germany have decided to abandon the joint combat aircraft component of the Future Combat Air System program after the industrial partners failed to reach agreement on how to proceed. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron reached the shared assessment that the companies will not be able to come together on building a joint combat aircraft, a German government official told Agence France-Presse.
The two leaders discussed the matter on the sidelines of an EU-western Balkans summit in Montenegro on Friday.
The FCAS program was launched in 2017. It was intended to replace France’s Rafale fighters and the Eurofighter jets operated by Germany and Spain. The main industrial participants have been Dassault Aviation of France and Airbus, representing the German and Spanish sides.
According to multiple reports citing government sources, the companies have been unable to resolve differences over industrial leadership and intellectual-property arrangements. Two mediators, one from each country, were appointed in March to develop compromise proposals but could not produce a solution acceptable to both sides.
Dassault has maintained that it must retain leadership of the combat-aircraft pillar to safeguard its know-how and sovereign industrial capability.
Airbus has sought a more equal role with substantial technology sharing. The German government official said both leaders had previously tried to persuade the companies to reach agreement. The official stated that the actual core of FCAS is to be continued as a European system that networks aircraft, drones, and other components into an integrated whole.
Other elements of the broader FCAS program will therefore proceed despite the termination of the piloted fighter-jet development track. Neither Dassault nor Airbus issued immediate public comment on Monday. No public statement has been released by the French government detailing its current position on the decision.
The sources describe the outcome as a mutual governmental acknowledgment of industrial impasse rather than a unilateral cancellation.
