The German Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorius, expressed his frustration this Tuesday over the lack of understanding with France to move forward with the sixth-generation European fighter jet program FCAS (Future Combat Air System), in which Spain was also involved.
"It hurts me a lot. Any Franco-German project that is not successful is something I don't like, because I know how important cooperation between Germany and France is in Europe," declared the German official, who, alluding to the multiple clashes that arose during the talks, stressed that "it was no longer possible to reach an agreement."
"Both (German Chancellor) Friedrich Merz and I have spoken with Dassault and Airbus, intensely, bilaterally and multilaterally. Emmanuel Macron also tried. The decisive obstacles could not be overcome or the industry did not want them to be overcome," explained the minister about the outcome of the attempt at a common program.
"It was an ambitious and far-reaching European project that has now crashed against reality. We have to live with it. This does not change the relationship with France at all," added Pistorius, emphasizing that political cooperation between the two countries remains a priority.
After prolonged rounds of dialogue, Paris and Berlin have opted to consider the FCAS lost due to disagreements between industrial partners. Sources from the German government indicate that Merz and Macron concluded that the French consortium Dassault Aviation and the European manufacturer Airbus would not be able to agree on who should assume leadership of the program.
In this context, Merz suggested to the French president that he abandon this defense project, considered until now the most ambitious in this field and launched in July 2017 by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel together with Macron himself. Despite this, the German leader has shown himself willing to move forward with the development of a combat cloud as an alternative for cooperation.