Chancellor Friedrich Merz has vowed to make Germany a European leader in civil and military aviation to “secure our sovereignty”.
The vow comes two days after the German leader pulled the plug on a decade-old consortium with France and Spain to build a new European fighter jet, citing irrevocable differences between the key partners.
“We’re resolving a long blockage with this decision, but we’re also opening up new opportunities for the industry to make progress in the construction of modern fighter jets in other ways,” said Merz at the ILA air show outside Berlin.
The €100 billion Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project, to develop a successor to the Eurofighter, ground to a halt after feuding between France’s Dassault Aviation and the German defence division of Franco-German aviation firm Airbus.
After months of standstill and unsuccessful political mediation, Merz conceded on Wednesday that Dassault and Airbus had been “unable to find common ground”.
