Germany and France have again postponed the decision on the FCAS air combat system planned together with Spain – this time to an indefinite date. “Contrary to the original planning, a final decision on the continuation of the FCAS project has not yet been made at the end of the year,” a government spokesman told the German Press Agency when asked.
The reason for this is “the comprehensive German-French agenda in foreign and security policy issues, which has not yet made it possible to address the issue of joint combat aircraft at the level of the President and the Federal Chancellor,” it said. What will happen next with the project is still completely open. “We cannot give a new date for a decision at this point,” wrote the government spokesman.
Total costs in the three-digit billion range
FCAS stands for “Future Combat Air System” and, if implemented, would be the largest and most expensive European armaments project. The total costs are estimated to be in the three-digit billion range. The air combat system is intended to fly in conjunction with unarmed and armed drones and is therefore more than just a combat aircraft. The plan is for it to replace the Eurofighter used by the Bundeswehr and also the French Rafale from 2040.
The decision on implementation was originally supposed to be made by the German-French Council of Ministers in Toulon at the end of August. Nothing came of it. Shortly before the meeting of both cabinets, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) announced the postponement of the decision and set a new target for the end of the year. Both sides were determined to stick to the deadline this time in order to have planning security.
“We are sticking to the plan to make a decision by the end of the year,” said Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) in November. “No matter what it looks like, there will be a decision by the end of the year.”
Differences over company participation
Nothing came of it now. The negotiations are dragging on, mainly because of profound differences over the respective participation of the companies Dassault (France), Airbus Germany and Indra (Spain). Dassault wants to take 80 percent of the project. On the other hand, the German side expressed the expectation in the summer that Dassault would “stick to the existing agreements,” according to which the companies should have an equal share.
As a compromise, a solution with two fighter jets is now being discussed in expert circles, which would then be produced by Dassault and Airbus as before, the Rafale and the Eurofighter. The joint project would then be essentially limited to the so-called “Combat Cloud”, a data network for military resources, and the accompanying drones. But it would cause additional costs and problems exporting the system due to competition between the two fighter jets.
There is also speculation that Germany might switch to a competing project, the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) run by the British, Italians and Japanese. A failure of FCAS would not only have significant consequences for German-French arms cooperation, but also for the relationship between the two countries as a whole. It is unclear when the next steps for clarification will take place.
