A new political agreement on FCAS, the future European combat aircraft project

After a year of uncertainty, France and Germany finally announced on Friday, November 18, that they had reached a new agreement to launch the next phase of development of the future “sixth generation” European fighter jet. The move corresponds to the construction of the demonstrator necessary to complete this project, called the “Future Air Combat System” (SCAF) and should replace the French Rafale from Dassault Aviation and the Airbus Eurofighter Typhoon by 2040.

Germany fired the first shot on Friday, November 18. “After intense negotiations, an agreement was reached between the industrialists”“- said in the press release issued by the Ministry of Defense at the end of the day. “The political agreement on FCAS is a great step forward and above all, in today’s international context, an important signal of excellent cooperation.”responded in the wake of Elysée and specified that the industrial agreement that should accompany it only “to finish”.

This political statement really still needs to be ratified by the signing of the contract in good and proper form between the producers, which was never acquired before the final initials. We can confirm that discussions between industry and governments on the next phase of FCAS have been successful.Thus, Airbus sensibly pointed out shortly after the Berlin announcement, while Dassault chose not to comment or issue a press release.

A deep technical disagreement

A situation directly related to the very high stakes of this contract, and deep technical disagreements between Dassault and Airbus Defense and Space, particularly over the sharing of flight control intellectual property, have long hampered SCAF’s progress. Among all the players in this huge Franco-German industrial project launched in 2017, which Spain joined at the end of 2019 and whose value is estimated at more than 100 billion euros, Dassault is the party with the most to lose.

SCAF is not really just an aircraft, but a global system consisting of nine “technology pillars”, including aircraft. However, even if the French aircraft manufacturer is the prime contractor for the aircraft itself, its rival Airbus, with its experience with the Eurofighter and its commercial aircraft, sought to participate in the development of the ordering system from the start. . But Dassault fears that sharing certain technologies will prove fatal for it in the long run, eventually swallowing the family business into a large European consortium. A scenario that many observers do not completely shy away from.