Failure on the horizon for the hunting plane, the largest common defense project in Europe. What Germany, France and Spain quarrels on

France announced on Wednesday that it is prepared to develop a fighter plane alone, suggesting the possible failure of the largest defense cooperation project in Europe, facing the deadlock with Germany and Spain on the European Scuba Fighting Program (Air Fighting System), writes AFP.

“If we really cannot reach an agreement on a reorganization of the program, France will be able to build a hunting plane alone, which does not mean (that it will be) exclusively French,” said a French official under the protection of anonymity, at a time when France is waiting for a new Minister of Defense.

“France actually disposes, in a sovereign way, all the expertise, skills, industrial structure and European network in order to develop, produce and then maintain this aircraft,” he added, according to Agerpres.

These considerations respond, according to the quoted official, to the “urgent need” to respect the planned calendar and to ensure the nuclear discouragement mission, currently carried out with Fafale aircraft.

This position reflects the one expressed on Tuesday by the aircraft producer, Dassault Aviation, the industrial leader of the project from France.

“We know how to do it from A to Z,” assured President and CEO Dassault Aviation, Eric Trappier, who said that, until this moment, he has not yet found a “solution” with Airbus, the company representing the interests of Berlin and Madrid.

Germany and Spain are especially exasperated by the Dassault position, which requires greater autonomy in its role as an industrial project manager for which it was appointed by the three state states.

The French producer especially requires the right to choose its subcontractors, even if it means changing the work volume of one third provided for the producers of each country.

Scaf project, marked by tensions between France, Germany and Spain

Launched in 2017 by Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron as an example of defense cooperation between Germany and France, countries to which Spain has joined, the Scaf project aims to replace the French Fafae and the German and Spanish Eurofighter Typhoon by 2040.

But this industrial program, estimated by experts at almost 100 billion euros, is marked by tensions between industrial producers in the three countries. Exacerbated voltages in the context in which the project is to enter a new phase in 2026, with the construction of a pre-prototype meant to evaluate the selected technologies and which is scheduled to fly until 2029. It requires an investment of almost five billion euros.

During a visit to Madrid last week, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germany and Spain want to “try to reach a solution by the end of 2025”.

A meeting between defense ministers from the three countries is scheduled to take place in October to make things advance.

“We share the same opinion: the current situation is unsatisfactory. We do not advance with this project,” said the German Chancellor along with the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez.

In the opinion of the French official quoted by AFP, “today no one has managed to prove that the current organization of the dive allows the development of the aircraft to meet the pressing needs of France in a timely manner.”

Like Dassault, this official also takes into account a greater job for France on the Pillar of Fighting Terile, even if it means yielding other parts of the program of Germany and Spain, such as the drones or the “fighting cloud”, the computer system that will connect all the elements.

“There is not only the plane.

If the Scaf program fails, France will have to finance the development of the so-called sixth generation aircraft alone. Many observers doubt that France has the necessary means to do so, given the precarious state of its public finances and the fact that, in addition, it must finance its military development in the face of the threat represented by Russia.

However, CEO Dassault Aviation, Eric Trappier, believes that “the production of a fighter plane and the production of a weapon is related to the political will.”