Germany, France postpone indefinitely decision on FCAS fighter jet program, says chancellery spokesman

BERLIN

Germany and France have indefinitely postponed the decision on the multi-billion-euro FCAS warplane program, a German chancellery spokesman said on Wednesday.

“Contrary to the original plan, a final decision on the continuation of the FCAS project has not yet been made at the end of the year,” an unnamed government spokesperson told the defense website hartpunkt.

“The reason for this was the comprehensive German-French agenda on foreign and security policy issues, which has not yet made it possible to address the issue of a joint fighter jet at the level of the president and the chancellor. We are unable to give a new date for a decision at this time,” he added.

FCAS stands for “Future Combat Air System” and, if realized, would be the largest and most expensive European defense project. In addition to Germany and France, Spain also wants to take part in this program.

The air combat system is to fly in conjunction with unarmed and armed drones and is therefore more than just a fighter jet. The plan is for it to replace the Eurofighter starting in 2040.

The decision on implementing the project was originally supposed to be made by the end of August, but was then postponed until the end of the year, mainly due to differences over the share of the project held by the companies Dassault, Airbus, and Indra.