“The ministerial meeting did not save the FCAS project. Negotiations have been postponed, there is no agreement on the fighter.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: Reuters with reference to three sources familiar with the situation, writes “European truth”
Details: One of the sources added that the implementation of the €100 billion project, in which the three countries were to jointly build a fifth-generation fighter to replace the French Rafales and the German-Spanish Eurofighters, was now “unlikely”.
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The announcement of the transition of the project to the next stage was previously planned at the meeting of the heads of the EU governments in Brussels this week.
Two other industry sources also said they expected negotiations on the next phase of the program to be pushed back to 2026 because there was no point in discussing the matter publicly now.
The three countries also failed to agree on “battle cloud” and drone systems provided under the FCAS program.
At the heart of the dispute is the desire of French military contractor Dassault to take the lead in the project, bypassing German partner Airbus, which official Berlin considers unacceptable.
Another difficulty is that the two countries need military aircraft for different missions. France needs aircraft capable of carrying nuclear warheads and interfacing with its aircraft carrier, while Germany, which does not have an aircraft carrier, has already agreed to purchase US F-35 warplanes to carry NATO nuclear warheads.
Earlier on Tuesday, the head of Dassault cast doubt on the program’s future, saying it depended on whether Germany was willing to reconsider its reliance on US arms imports.
In October, the media reported that Europe began to seriously discuss alternatives to the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) new generation fighter project.