Key Points and Summary – Europe’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS)—the Franco-German-Spanish bid for a sixth-generation fighter—faces fresh turbulence over leadership and workshare.
-Berlin bristles at what it sees as Dassault’s outsized role, prompting talk of fallback options with Sweden, the UK, or Spain alone. Paris argues “best athlete” should lead; German lawmakers warn delays and unknowns loom.
FCAS Fighter Mock Up. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-The strain echoes past joint headaches (Tiger, MGCS) and plays out against the UK-Italy-Japan GCAP push. FCAS’s core Next-Generation Fighter aims to replace Rafale and Eurofighter in the 2040s, but only if partners lock governance, funding, and industrial roles before distrust derails Europe’s flagship airpower bet.
The Growing FCAS Fracas Between Paris and Berlin
Europe wants to position its defense industries as viable alternatives to American military kit.
However, a burgeoning disagreement between the French and Germans illustrates just how difficult it is to reach an agreement on cutting-edge technology of the future.
A dust-up is brewing between Germany and France over who will be in charge of the Future Combat Air System, a European-led sixth-generation fighter that FCAS partners Germany, France, and Spain hope will ultimately yield a viable alternative to an American-dominated industry.
POLITICO reported on the events last week.
“According to two people familiar with the discussions, the German defense ministry raised FCAS in talks last week with Airbus, which is responsible for Germany’s part of the jet’s development and construction,” the newspaper wrote.
“The conversations laid bare Berlin’s discontent with what officials see as a push by French industry for an outsized role in the program,” POLITICO added. “That attitude has pushed the Germans to weigh fallback options, including moving ahead without France.
The company was told that the German government is exploring potential closer cooperation with Sweden or the UK—or going it alone with Spain.”
“At some point [the German] parliament will have to say: ‘Either we need this aircraft or we don’t,’” Andreas Schwarz, a lawmaker with Germany’s center-left Social Democrats, told POLITICO. Mr. Schwarz warned that the production of that aircraft has not yet begun and that “many unforeseen problems” are likely to arise if the project proceeds as it currently stands.
Earlier this summer, both France and Germany attempted to iron out their differences on what FCAS should be and do, with a hopeful resolution by fall, at which point the two countries would decide whether to move forward with the FCAS program.
A German Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon flies over Alaska during exercise Arctic Defender 24 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, July 8, 2024. Arctic Defender is a German Air Force-led exercise that provides a unique opportunity to integrate various forces into joint, coalition and multilateral training from simulated forward operating bases and is part of several exercises under Pacific Skies 24. Pacific Skies is a combination of several exercises in the Indo-Pacific theater in which German, French and Spanish air forces participate with U.S. forces. (U.S. Air Force photo Senior Airman Shelimar Rivera Rosado)
At the core of the Future Combat Air System is the Next-Generation Fighter that, if successful, will replace Germany’s Eurofighter Typhoons and France’s Rafale fighter jets around the 2040s.
The project runs in parallel to the UK-Italy-Japan Global Combat Air Programme, another initiative that hopes to field a sixth-generation fighter. However, if France and Germany—and Europe more broadly—can sustain either of those projects and build a viable sixth-generation fighter, it is an open question.
Keeping disagreements between the parties tamped down will be of utmost importance to the FCAS and GCAP initiatives.
Dassault Rafale Flying for Croatia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
In the Beginning
French President Emmanuel Macron and then-Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel both agreed to launch the FCAS project back in 2017, with Spain joining the initiative in 2019.
Reuters cites French industry sources, stating that Spain’s entry into the project complicated decisions for Dassault, which often found itself at odds with its German and Spanish counterparts within the project.
However, Reuters reported that German insiders explained that their French partners had attempted to dominate the FCAS project, in part by reserving the “most interesting work” related to FCAS in France, rather than distributing the workload equitably.
While France has a robust defense industry and a domestic aerospace environment that is among the most advanced within Europe, the country finds itself strapped for cash, casting doubt on Paris’s ability to fund a French-only sixth-generation aerospace project in the future.
The Germans, on the other hand, would face their own challenges if spearheading a sixth-generation fighter project, namely a dearth of experience in designing and building cutting-edge warplanes, as well as the necessity of a compromise partnership on the FCAS project with one or more countries.
Speaking to Reuters, Dassault CEO Eric Trappier said, “The Germans can complain, but here we know how to do this. If they want to act on their own, let them do so.”
“We are totally open to cooperation including with the Germans, but we are just asking for one small thing: give us the capacity to drive the programme,” he said. But, he added, “I won’t accept that three of us are sitting round the table deciding all the technical aspects of developing a high-level aircraft. I want it to be the ‘best athlete’ who decides. That doesn’t mean we run everything, far from it.” But there is precedent for Franco-German initiatives collapsing in the past.
Germany and France jointly developed the Tiger attack helicopter in the 1980s, and the Tiger entered series production in the early 2000s. However, that project was wracked by limited reliability, high maintenance costs, low availability, and an overly complex design.
While not a total failure, Germany has decided to phase out its Tiger helicopters by the late 2030s in favor of American alternatives, whereas France has opted to upgrade its Tigers.
While not a total failure, the joint nature of the project has, in effect, ceased to exist.
The Main Ground Combat System, or MGCS, is planned as the future Franco-German battle tank, set to replace Germany’s Leopard 2 and France’s Leclerc around 2040.
However, the MGCS program is facing deadlock over disagreements about the project’s leadership, specific design choices, and the workload division.
What Happens Next?
Speaking to Handelsblatt, a German industry and economics newspaper, Thomas Pretzl, the head of the workers’ council at Airbus Defence and Space, stated that Germany could find a new European partner to move forward with the project, aside from France.
“I believe that FCAS should go ahead without Dassault. There are more attractive and suitable partners in Europe,” he said. But for now at least, the search continues.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
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