France and Germany seem ready to move on to the next stage of developing their own fighter, thereby bringing it back to life. Europe’s largest defense-arms programThis is stated in the Financial Times article.

Two countries and both major companies involved, Airbus and Dasso Aviationprepare to move on to the next critical stage of the project implementation Combat aviation system of the future (FCAS)moreover, an agreement may even be expected in the coming days, the FT notes, citing sources who wished to remain anonymous.

The next phase, called “Phase 1b” (“Phase 1b”), was allocated around 3.8 billion euros, but negotiations broke down as the parties disagreed on a number of issues (intellectual property, distribution and division of work, technical specifications). aircraft). In the meantime, the climate in Franco-German relations will become even more complicated and tense as the joint meeting of the French and German cabinets scheduled for October is postponed and the two countries openly disagree on a number of issues: the natural gas ceiling, natural gas pipelines, emergency aid programs households and businesses affected by the energy crisis, etc. It is recalled that in Paris they were suspicious of the decision of the Germans to proceed with the purchase of 35 American F-35.

“France and Germany are convinced of the importance of the combat aviation system of the future. There is no alternative, it should work,” Mike Scholhorn of Airbus said from Berlin on Monday.

FCAS launched Paris as well as Berlin in 2017 to join him later and Madrid is the largest defense project in Europe, notes FT. A project worth tens of billions of euros, designed to give impetus to the strategic autonomy of the Old Continent, strengthen political and military ties between major European economies and breathe new life into the European aerospace industry.

FCAS was developed with an eye to developing a new generation of combat aircraft that will operate with drones and carry advanced communications systems. The aircraft in question could potentially replace fighters such as eurofighter, Tornado as well as Rafal. However, as the FT points out, the fighter that may withdraw from the FCAS project will not be ready until 2040 or 2050, at the same time another similar project is “launching” in Europe, in this case – Storm with the participation of the British (BAE Systems) and Italians (Leonardo).

Source: FT