Europe’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS) only existed on paper.Image: AFP
After the debacle of the European FCAS fighter jet project, the Germans and French are going their own way. Just which ones? Nobody has a patent solution.
June 10, 2026, 7:22 p.mJune 10, 2026, 7:22 p.m
In the end, Friedrich Merz and Emmanuel Macron didn’t even manage to jointly announce the end of the joint FCAS project. The German Chancellor commented via “government circles”, the French President did not comment at all.
Macron launched the “Future Combat Air System” (FCAS) in 2017 with Angela Merkel. The largest and, at 100 billion euros, most expensive military project in Europe was intended to be the seed of European defense. It consisted of a sixth-generation fighter jet, drones, sensors and a networked combat cloud with AI support. The plane was supposed to be able to compete with the American stealth fighters.
But it wasn’t meant to be. The culprit can be named: Eric Trappier, head of the French fighter and private jet manufacturer Dassault (Mirage, Rafale, Falcon). In 2025 he suddenly demanded 80 percent management share. Of course, its partner Airbus Defense did not take part: In this way, Dassault would have controlled the industrial licenses and intellectual property – particularly important in times of AI.
It is not certain whether Trappier was guided by anti-German sentiments. However, what is more likely for the FCAS failure is the old intra-French dispute between the private company Dassault and the Airbus conglomerate, which, among other things, emerged from the state-owned Aéropostale. Dassault was known for his solo tours long before the Trappier era; Back in the 1980s, the proud French preferred to go their own way with the Rafale rather than get involved with the British, Germans, Italians and Spaniards on the truly European Eurofighter fighter jet.
Politically convincing, technically impossible
The Germans have recently thwarted the FCAS project. The aviation industry association BDLI, which is particularly powerful in Bavaria, had long distanced itself from Macron’s fighter jet. The political symbol FCAS presented countless technical problems. The French need a smaller fighter that can land on their aircraft carrier; The Germans, on the other hand, wanted to be able to carry a high payload.
BDLI managing director Marie-Christine von Hahn, the chief lobbyist for German aviation, does not consider the FCAS project to be completely dead: in particular, the AI applications of the combat cloud and the drone squadron could perhaps still be developed together and given the stamp “Made in France and Germany”. The defense ministers of the two countries want to discuss this in July. But even their meeting will not eliminate the impression of a huge, almost historic fiasco in German-French cooperation.
Especially since the National Assembly in Paris quietly but definitely buried the project for a German-French Eurodrone in the spring. With good reason: The French General Staff does not want the 13-ton drone, as it relies on smaller, more numerous drones based on its experience with recent wars.
French President Emmanuel Macron explained the advantages of FCAS to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in vain.Image: keystone
In this area too, the bilateral requirement profiles are now too far apart. It’s like a bewitchment with Paris and Berlin: As soon as it comes to detailed planning, the beautiful intentions of German-French arms cooperation turn out to be unrealizable. The result is also a serious dispute: Macron had warned Merz that the joint battle tank MGCS could also be at risk if the Germans pulled out of the FCAS plan, as they have now done.
What next? Both sides are faced with a pile of broken glass. France can now only build its own Dassault fighter jet – but the state coffers are empty, especially since Macron has also commissioned a new aircraft carrier. The Germans have the money but not enough experience in building a state-of-the-art fighter jet. Cooperation with the Swedish Saab (Gripen) is out of the question for Berlin, as Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has explained. Germany could possibly join the British-Italian-Japanese fighter jet project GCAP; As a latecomer, he would have little say.
Conclusion: After the FCAS disaster, there is no silver bullet solution in sight for the Europeans. They don’t even seem to be able to create a common weapons system. The various norms, standards and systems in force in Europe (called “Stanags” in the defense industry) are said to number around 180 in the EU. This says everything about the difficulty, if not impossibility, of achieving a European defense. Meanwhile, according to intelligence findings, Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning an attack on an EU state from 2030. (aargauerzeitung.ch)