This Was Inevitable

The French and German future fighter project has been shut down over disputes over workshare.

This is not a surprise.  Dassault has always insisted on having complete control of so-called, "Joint," projects, with its partners getting little beyond serving as the program's banker.

One need only look at the two modern examples of cross border aviation projects that actually reached production, the SEPECAT Jaguar, (A joint venture of Breuget and  British Aircraft Corporation) and the Concorde. (A joint venture of Sud Aviation and British Aircraft Corporation)

You will notice that the Dassault had no part in any of this.

More than 40 years after France withdrew from the Future European Fighter Aircraft program, Paris and Berlin have called it quits on their effort to work on a sixth-generation combat aircraft in a partnership also involving Spain.

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Dassault, which was the industrial lead on the fighter program, a year ago voiced displeasure with the program’s structure. The company said it lacked sufficient control and wanted change. That set off months of industrial bickering. The issue came to a head with a new phase of the development program that was due to start in October.

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Geopolitics also collided with the FCAS. When the governments shook hands, their ambition to develop a fighter was more an industrial and jobs undertaking than a military necessity. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 drove a change in mindset, making defense more central to French and German motivations. That also crystallized requirements differences. France needs a fighter that is carrier-capable and can deliver nuclear weapons. Germany does not.

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Fighter requirements are likely to be reset. Germany and Spain are no longer driven to shoehorn their needs into those of France, which were constrained by carrier compatibility. Throughout the program, Dassault and Airbus concept drawings for the fighter differed, suggesting the gap in requirements definition.

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When an Anglo-French project to develop a variable-geometry combat aircraft failed in the 1960s after Paris pulled out, London pursued a program with Germany and Italy that ultimately produced the Panavia Tornado. The French withdrawal from the pan-European Future European Fighter Aircraft came two decades later, birthing the Rafale on one side and the Eurofighter Typhoon on the other. In the 2010s, Paris and London explored development of an uncrewed combat air vehicle. The two split when the UK voted to leave the EU, spurring France and Germany to explore the FCAS instead.

Rather unsurprisingly, Germany is working with Spain to resurrect the program.

In a significant development for Europe’s future air combat ambitions, Airbus is trying to restart the program to develop a sixth-generation combat jet, now under German and Spanish leadership. This comes less than a week after the Franco-German-led New Generation Fighter (NGF) effort effectively collapsed in its original form, amid acrimony between Paris and Berlin. The NGF was planned as the crewed centerpiece of the pan-European Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which Airbus, as the leading European aerospace corporation, now hopes to get back on track.  

Partnering with Dassault on a fighter project is a losing proposition.