Germany and France scrap joint FCAS fighter jet after Airbus-Dassault deadlock
Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Emmanuel Macron have agreed to terminate the joint development of a next-generation combat aircraft, acknowledging that Airbus and Dassault Aviation cannot reconcile their differences.
The Future Combat Air System (FCAS), intended as the centrepiece of European defence cooperation, has been formally abandoned by Germany and France. Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Emmanuel Macron reached the shared assessment that the industrial partners, Airbus and Dassault Aviation, were unable to work together on the fighter jet component, according to German government sources on Monday.
The core dispute
The project, launched in 2017 by Angela Merkel and Macron, aimed to replace the Eurofighter and Rafale fleets with a networked system of a sixth-generation fighter, accompanying drones, and a real-time data cloud linking air, ground, and naval units. Spain was also a partner. The fighter jet itself became the breaking point. Dassault, as prime contractor for the aircraft, clashed with Airbus, which represented Germany and Spain and held a weight equivalent to two-thirds of the programme. Dassault refused a governance structure it considered incompatible with efficient project leadership, while Airbus rejected being relegated to a mere subcontractor.
The companies Dassault and Airbus are not coming together on the construction of a joint fighter jet. They recognise this reality. Chancellor Merz has therefore suggested to President Macron not to pursue the construction of a joint fighter jet further.
The programme remained stuck at the technological studies phase (phase 1B), never progressing to the design of a demonstrator.
What survives
Despite killing the fighter jet, Berlin and Paris intend to continue developing the overarching "system of systems" that would connect aircraft and drones. The concept of a cloud-based interface, linking fighter jets and their pilots to sensors, radars, drones, and ground and maritime command systems, already forms a pillar of FCAS and will be pursued as a European system. A working plan with several joint armaments projects is to be presented by both defence ministries at the Franco-German Ministerial Council in mid-July.
- Project launched by Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron to replace Eurofighter and Rafale by 2040.
- France and Germany discuss abandoning the joint fighter jet to focus on a European military cloud.
- Merz and Macron formally end the joint fighter jet; system-of-systems cloud work continues.
- Franco-German Ministerial Council expected to receive a working plan for joint armaments projects.
Germany's shifting defence posture
The collapse of the fighter jet cooperation coincides with a sharp rise in German military spending. Berlin's defence budget is expected to exceed 100 billion euros in 2026 and reach approximately 153 billion euros annually by 2029. This financial trajectory appears to be reinforcing a preference for a more autonomous national strategy over complex European partnerships. The failure of FCAS, the largest and most expensive European defence project had it been realised, leaves both nations searching for alternative paths to next-generation air combat capabilities.
