France and Germany scrap joint fighter jet programme after years of industrial deadlock

The end of a flagship project

France and Germany have pulled the plug on their joint Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme, the Élysée confirmed on Monday. The decision was reached after Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Emmanuel Macron met in Montenegro last week and concluded there was no way of breaking months of deadlock between the main industrial partners, Dassault Aviation and Airbus. The German authorities considered it was not possible to put further pressure on the companies concerned, the Élysée said in a statement.

The French authorities will continue to encourage our companies and armed forces to explore ways and means of pursuing ambitious European projects that are consistent with our national security interests.

Industrial rivalry at the core

The project, conceived in 2017 by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel and a freshly elected Macron, was billed as a way of resetting Franco-German relations and pooling limited defence resources. But disagreements over control of the scheme and division of work festered. Dassault wanted to lead development of the aircraft, while Airbus, representing Germany and Spain, refused a secondary role. Disputes also covered intellectual property and patent rights.

The project was conceived in a different world.

Diverging military requirements

Beyond industrial tensions, the French and German armed forces wanted different things from the aircraft. France required a jet capable of operating from aircraft carriers and carrying nuclear weapons, requirements the German side did not consider necessary. The programme was estimated at a minimum of 100 billion euros, with several billion already spent since 2017 on studies and demonstrators.

Spain caught off guard

Spain, the third partner contributing an equal share of funding to the 7 billion euro programme, was not consulted on the decision. Belén Gualda, president of the Spanish state holding company Sepi, acknowledged the programme's end and said she would request a report from Indra, the Spanish industrial coordinator for the sensor component, to analyse the implications for Spanish industry. Indra shares fell nearly 4% on the news.

Yesterday we received the news and we will ask the company to analyse and convey its immediate analysis.

What comes next

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said the end of FCAS was not a surprise and that Berlin is already in talks with various actors about alternatives. Options under consideration include cooperation with Sweden's Saab, a new European consortium, joining the British-Italian-Japanese GCAP programme, or purchasing additional American F-35s. Airbus presented plans for an FCAS successor at the ILA Berlin Air Show, while German officials claim core aspects of the wider programme, such as the combat cloud and drones, may continue.

We have been in discussions with various actors for several months, as you can imagine. But I do not want to speculate publicly about which project it might be or under whose leadership it would run.

A blow to European defence cooperation

The collapse of FCAS undermines efforts to demonstrate that Europe can act strategically and with common purpose, at a time of fraying ties with the United States and continued Russian aggression in Ukraine. The programme was meant to be more than a fighter jet: it was conceived as a system of systems, including a manned fighter, a swarm of unmanned remote carriers, and a combat cloud connecting everything digitally. Its failure leaves the Rafale and Eurofighter without a planned successor by the early 2040s.