According to the website of the weekly “Der Spiegel” There are three main directions at stake: establishing cooperation with the Swedish company Saab, establishing a new European consortium or increasing the order for American F-35 fighters. Each of these options carries different technological and political consequences for the German armed forces.
On Monday, Germany and France officially ended many years of talks on the joint construction of a modern combat machine. The reason was irreconcilable differences regarding patent rights and work management issues. German media reports indicate that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron jointly decided that Dassault and Airbus would not be able to reach an agreement on the FCAS project.
The idea of building the system was presented by Macron in 2017 and supported by the then German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. The project assumed the creation of a comprehensive new-generation combat system, the central element of which would be a fighter that would replace the German Eurofighter and French Rafale from 2040. After taking office as chancellor in 2025, Merz declared the continuation of the program, but in February he admitted that Germany did not need this machine as much as France.
Eurofighter replacement
“The question now arises for the Bundeswehr what replacement it will receive after the failure of the FCAS fighter project, which was supposed to replace Eurofighters in its fleet in the early 2040s,” writes “Der Spiegel”. Berlin has not yet decided which path it will choose. The prevailing view in government and military circles is that a new generation of manned vehicles is necessary.
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Saab, F-35 or a new consortium
Among the possible solutions, the weekly mentions cooperation with the Swedish company Saab or the creation of a completely new European industrial alliance. Another alternative is extending the order to American F-35 aircraft. Currently, the German army is waiting for the delivery of 35 such planes, which will replace the withdrawn Tornado.
The German side wants to save the remaining elements of the broader FCAS program, even though work on the aircraft has been completed. Berlin hopes to maintain cooperation with Paris in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles and software that digitally connects all elements of the battlefield system. However, the French side raised doubts on this matter, suggesting that abandoning the construction of the plane may undermine the sense of further cooperation.
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EUR 100 billion for a new generation system
The estimated cost of the entire FCAS project exceeded EUR 100 billion. The creators planned to integrate the machine with unmanned aerial vehicles and a combat cloud command network. The system was to constitute the core of European combat aviation for the next decades.
Over the following years, the venture struggled with difficulties resulting mainly from tensions between industrial companies. The participants of the program were the French Dassault and the German Airbus, which also represented the third partner – the Spanish Indra. The producers were unable to reach an agreement on the division of tasks. The rights to use technological innovations developed during the work were also a bone of contention.
