German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed to abandon a joint fighter jet programme due to long-running disagreements between the companies involved, the German government has said.
The leaders “reached the shared assessment that the companies will not be able to come together on building a joint combat aircraft”, a government official told AFP on Monday about the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project.
“They acknowledge this reality.”
The FCAS programme was launched in 2017 to replace France’s Rafale jets and the Eurofighter aircraft used by Germany and Spain.
But the multi-billion-euro project was beset by disagreements between the firms involved – France’s Dassault Aviation and Airbus, which represents Germany and Spain.
