What Europe’s Failed Joint Fighter Jet Project Means for Defense

Failure of European fighter jet program exposes the weakness of EU defense

The European Future Combat Air System (FCAS), a joint project led by France and Germany with participation from Spain, has failed because of disagreements between Airbus, the German representative, and Dassault, the French firm. It was the most ambitious European project at a time when the EU says it wants to increase and coordinate military spending to develop shared defense technologies, programs, and platforms — like the one that collapsed on…

What Europe’s failed joint fighter jet project means for defense

In this episode of GZERO Europe, Carl Bildt considers what the collapse of the joint French-German-Spanish fighter aircraft project means for European defense.Bildt says the collaboration failed because of France and Germany's differing strategic needs: France aimed to develop “a small aircraft that could go on their aircraft carrier,” while Germany wanted a heavier, longer-range platform.The result, Bildt says, is a period of “disarray” as Euro…

Europe’s next-gen fighter jet is dead. What does that mean for the continent’s security ambitions?

Paris —  When plans to build a European fighter jet to surpass the US F-35 were officially grounded this week, it came as a surprise to almost no one. Industrial incompatibilities ultimately sank the project at the heart of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) scheme, the much-vaunted political lynchpin of Franco-German military cooperation. The deal, which had come with an estimated price tag of 100 billion euros ($116 billion), seemed doomed fr…

Germany And Spain Launch ‘Team Gen 6’ After Europe’s Next-Gen Fighter Effort Collapses

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