Merc and Macron give up on the European "hunter" of the future

The leaders of France and Germany have agreed to abandon a key project to develop and build a next-generation fighter jet, two German officials said today, ending one of Europe's most ambitious defense programs.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the troubled project last week on the sidelines of the European Union-Western Balkans summit in Montenegro and concluded that there was no prospect of overcoming the months-long deadlock, officials said.

The failure to reach an agreement on the 100 billion euro ($116 billion) project highlights the difficulties Europe faces in rebuilding its military capabilities after decades of underinvestment.

The project, which was to center on a basic fighter jet supported by drones and connected by a classified “combat cloud,” had been in doubt for months as the two sides argued over specifications and control.

The failure to reach an agreement on the 100 billion euro project highlights the difficulties Europe faces in rebuilding its military capabilities after decades of underinvestment.

A European source familiar with the matter said the two sides were moving towards a face-saving solution, under which the remaining systems outside the fighter jet itself, such as the "combat cloud" of highly secure communications, would retain the same name: Future Combat Air System, or FCAS.

The compromise is largely symbolic, since FCAS is a generic name for such systems and is not unique to this plan, but officials are seeking a formula that would allow Macron to abandon the basic fighter jet without having to declare the entire project dead.

Macron launched the project in 2017 with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Macron and Merc have been trying for months to save the project and overcome differences between the main industrial partners, European aerospace group Airbus, which represents Germany and Spain, and France's Dassault Aviation.

In addition to disputes over control and technological specifications, the two sides had very different requirements for the aircraft.

Merz openly questioned whether developing a manned fighter jet still made sense for his country's air force, and said that Germany did not need a plane capable of carrying nuclear weapons and landing on an aircraft carrier.