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French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday stuck to his position that Europeans should develop a single common fighter jet, despite his German counterpart and Airbus both expressing their willingness to look into a two-fighter solution.
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“We Europeans, if we understand the direction history is taking us, have an interest in standardising, simplifying and therefore having a common model,” Macron told reporters while on a visit to India.
“I think we need to redouble our efforts, but I am also trying to look at the strategy of our countries, of our Europe, and the proper use of our taxpayers’ money. Is building more aeroplanes the best use of money? We need to have a European standard,” he added.
France, Germany and Spain have been in talks since 2017 to develop the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) to replace two widely used planes: France’s Rafale jet, and the Eurofighter used by Germany and Spain.
The aim was to rollout a replacement in 2040, but the programme has been stalled due to disagreements between Airbus and Dassault, with the latter saying that it could build the fighter jet by itself if needed and calling for the bulk of the workforce to be based in France.
The FCAS programme is seen as emblematic of Europe’s ongoing effort to overhaul its defence, and Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have had extensive discussions on the topic in recent months to speed up progress. But Merz suggested on Wednesday that Berlin could abandon the project altogether, arguing that the two countries have different needs.
“The French need, in the next generation of fighter jets, an aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons and operating from an aircraft carrier. That’s not what we currently need in the German military,” Merz told the Machtwechsel podcast.
Guillaume Faury, the CEO of Airbus, similarly said on Thursday that building two separate jets might be the way forward.
“If mandated by our customers, we would support a two-fighter solution and are committed to playing a leading role,” Faury told a news conference.
He nonetheless said that “the deadlock of a single pillar should not jeopardise the entire future of this high-tech European capability which will bolster our collective defence”.
Macron said that the direction of travel dictated by recent global geopolitical events means more, and not less, European manufacturing is required in defence.
“We are talking about a generation of aircraft that will arrive after 2040-2050. Do we think the world will be simpler, less competitive? No,” he told reporters, citing efforts by China and India to boost their own military aviation programmes.
The development of a single fighter jet was a strategic decision, he went on, acknowledging that “frictions between companies” happen.
“But does that mean it should determine the strategy of states? No.”
