Dassault Aviation finally confirmed on Thursday that it had made a move on the future European fighter after intense Franco-German political pressure to save the ambitious and expensive project, writes AFP.

“Yes, it was done today. We have an agreement with Airbus. All the obstacles have been removed,” Eric Trappier, managing director of the French builder, told Le Figaro, adding that “only the official signing of the contracts remains in a few days.”

On November 25, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced that “agreement has been reached (between) industry” on research contracts that will lead to the demonstration of the Future Air Combat System (SCAF).

“It needs to be validated by the states, and I think that’s ongoing,” Ms Bourne added. A Dassault spokesman later said it was “not done”. However, a week earlier, the German Ministry of Defense announced an agreement between the manufacturers.

“There was pressure from all sides. I pressed. I was under pressure. But until the industrial agreement was concluded, it was premature to announce it,” Trappier said in an interview published Thursday afternoon by Le Figaro, a newspaper owned by the Dassault group.

According to him, from now on “we will be able to start the execution of a new phase of research, known as 1B, which should prepare the development of the aircraft that should fly around 2029”.

As for the contracts, “they will be notified by the General Directorate of Armaments, which is the executive agency for contracts, on behalf of the three partner countries – France, Germany and Spain,” he said.

According to Mr. Trappier, “all negotiations involve concessions. But yes, we received all the guarantees to open a new stage of what is, let me remind you, a training stage and not yet a program. The company was especially keen to protect its status as the leader of the aircraft project itself.