Germany is still not expecting a concrete decision on the future of the joint project with Spain and France to develop sixth-generation fighter jets, at the meeting that the defense ministers of the three countries will hold on Thursday to try to resolve their differences over the percentage of participation.
“We have the schedule until the end of the year so that a decision can be made there; the end of the year is near, but it has not yet arrived. We continue to consider it an important project, but in the meantime no new decision has been made,” said the deputy spokesman, Sebastian Hille, at the German government’s ordinary press conference.
The spokesperson specified that “he would not say” that a decision is expected as early as Thursday, when German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius will meet in Berlin in a three-way meeting with his counterparts from Spain, Margarita Robles, and France, Catherine Vautrin, “because the end of the year is a little after the 11th.”
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The initiative to create a sixth-generation fighter and replace the Eurofighter and Rafale currently in service from 2040 onwards is stalled due to disagreements, particularly between Berlin and Paris.
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The latest difficulties of the FCAS arise from the desire of the French arms and aeronautical firm Dassault to take control of 80% of the project, despite the fact that initially a 33% participation had been agreed for each of the partners, which includes the Spanish company Indra.
Both Germany and Spain want to maintain the initial agreement.
Robles appeared last November after meeting with Vautrin, confident that the three countries will overcome their differences to move the project forward.
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“We are going to do everything possible to make it succeed,” insisted the Spanish representative, who stressed that for Spain it is a “fundamental” program in which the country believes “firmly.” “We need it,” she said on November 7th.
Before meeting with Robles and Vautrin in a three-way meeting, Pistorius will hold a first private meeting with his French counterpart, who is visiting Berlin for the first time.
For her part, the French minister was open to talking with her Spanish and German counterparts and estimated that the industries of the three countries have to work together and be able to respond to the mandate of the countries they represent.
Berlin, in turn, has not wanted to comment on whether, given these difficulties, Germany is in talks about alternatives to FCAS with the United Kingdom and Sweden, the latter country having experience in the development of the Gripen fighter jet from Saab.
