At the beginning of the week, the decision of the leaders of France and Germany to abandon the development of a new fighter plane to replace the Eurofighter was announced. This decision not only blocked the creation of a new aircraft, but an entire 100 billion euro program, which was seen for almost a decade as the future of European military power.
The Prime Minister of Belgium, Bart De Wever, criticized the failure of FCAS, calling it “pure stupidity”, warning that European countries have chosen to be “irrelevant in a crucial part of air defense”.
The Future Air Combat System (FCAS) was a French, German, and Spanish project – with Belgium as an observer – to build not just a fighter aircraft, but an entire system comprising a network of aircraft, drones, sensors, and satellites, capable of competing with some of the most innovative military aircraft in the world. The project, however, stalled at the development phase of the new aircraft, for which Dassault Aviation and Airbus Defence and Space were supposed to collaborate, but failed to reach a common ground. The disagreements were mainly related to the fact that France wanted a light aircraft, capable of using aircraft carriers, while Germany wanted a heavy aircraft, for air superiority.
In the face of this decision, European countries must determine their next steps. Politico suggests that there are three possibilities. One is for countries to try to go their own way and build their own aircraft – a proposal already put forward by German companies and long supported by Dassault. However, this option is very costly and there is a likelihood that the already strained national budgets may not be able to support such an effort. France, for example, has the technical capacity to develop a new aircraft, but is facing a series of financial problems.
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