FCAS, which also involves Spain, is imploding at a high-stakes moment for Europe, as threat rises from Russia
France and Germany’s plan to build a fighter jet of the future, planned to come with a swarm of drones and a “combat communications cloud”, is collapsing.
Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, said this week that the €100bn programme no longer worked for him. He insisted it was “not a political dispute”, but a technical one. France needs a jet that can carry nuclear weapons and launch from aircraft carriers, while Germany does not. However, the problems go back much further.
Known as the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), the programme was announced to great fanfare in 2017 by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and then German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Spain joined in 2019.
The jet was meant to replace France and Germany’s existing fighters by 2040, equipped with stealth capabilities and surrounded by drones scouting ahead or drawing enemy fire, all sharing data in real time.
