BELFAST — Coming out of the latest meeting on the troubled Future Combat Air System (FCAS), France and Spain signaled their renewed commitment to the next-gen program, though key stakeholder Germany declined to join them with a public comment.
The Thursday meeting, held in Berlin on Thursday, “allowed us to reaffirm our commitment to continue working together on the SCAF [the French name for FCAS] to have a future aircraft and air combat system by 2040 and to study the conditions for moving into a new phase of development of a demonstrator,” said a spokesperson for the French Armed Forces ministry, in a statement to Breaking Defense today.
Madrid shared a similar message by way of a post on X, citing the joint talks. “We continue working and betting on European strategic autonomy and major projects such as the FCAS,” it stated today.
But the German Ministry of Defence refused to share any details about the outcome of the meeting, telling Breaking Defense, “Please understand that the content of yesterday’s [trilateral] discussions will be treated as confidential.”
The meeting had been billed as a chance to resolve outstanding issues related to the unstable project, and came the same day Bloomberg reported that Berlin could scrap joint development of the future fighter, potentially reducing cooperation to work on drone wingman aircraft or a combat cloud. The German MoD spokesperson declined to comment on that possibility.
In October, Berlin told Breaking Defense that it “continues to strive for the successful implementation” of FCAS, but since then Franco-German industrial relations have become further strained after local workers union IG Metall threatened in a letter to the German government to stop cooperation if France’s Dassault remains part of the project, according to Reuters. The fighter jet manufacturer, alongside Airbus and Spain’s Indra are the three national industry leads for the sixth generation platform.
IG Metall’s ultimatum only compounds an existing industry dispute revolving around Dassault’s demand for greater control of the New Generation Fighter (NGF), the jet at the center of FCAS, at the expense of Airbus. In tandem, the multinational program is focused on development of drone wingman aircraft and a combat cloud, a digital network designed to connect crewed and uncrewed platforms, as well as weapons and sensors.
The network transport layer is the backbone of next-generation command and control
Hybrid communications requirements will shape the Army’s data infrastructure of the future.
Despite Madrid and Paris stressing that work continues, there remains a danger that if the program does not deliver a breakthrough on industry infighting soon, FCAS Phase 2 — planned to go ahead next year, but with a contract still to be negotiated — will be delayed.
The milestone is necessary for industry to develop technology demonstrators covering the NGF, its engine, remote carriers, the combat cloud and sensors.
FCAS was envisioned as delivering a replacement for Eurofighter Typhoon and Rafale fighter jets, ready for entry to service in 2040.