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French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have openly disagreed this week over the future of the fighter jet program developed by France, Germany and Spain.
French and German officials have said privately for months that the Future Combat Air System was at an impasse due to disagreements between the project's main contractors.
Now the divide between Paris and Berlin is becoming increasingly apparent, with Macron arguing that Europe should have a standard fighter jet model and Merz saying that the needs of European countries do not necessarily match.
The FCAS aims to replace Germany's Eurofighter fighter jets and France's Rafale fighter jets around 2040. The program includes a fighter jet, which is at the heart of the dispute, drones and a combat cloud.
The project has been repeatedly delayed by industrial disputes, particularly between France's Dassault Aviation and German-backed Airbus over the leadership and control of the fighter jet.
" We Europeans... have an interest in standardizing, in having a common model for fighter jets. We have identified common needs. Are they being questioned? The answer is no... Is building lots of planes the best use of our money? We need to standardize ," Macron told reporters on Thursday ahead of a trip to India.
This directly contradicts statements Merz made earlier this week. The German chancellor said that the German air force did not have the same requirements as France's, because French fighter jets must be able to carry nuclear weapons and land on aircraft carriers.
Merz's comments were interpreted by the Belgian defense minister as a death sentence for the FCAS, Belgium has observer status in the program.
"Berlin is open to producing two different fighter jets while continuing to jointly develop drones and a combat cloud," Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told reporters on Thursday that his company agreed.
However, France does not see this as an opportunity to end the stalemate. Instead, Macron doubled down on the need for Europeans to work together on defense, arguing that the world was becoming increasingly competitive with countries such as India eventually developing their own fighter jets.
"We carried out this project eight years ago. Has there been less need for Europe in terms of defense since then? No. We must redouble our determination," he said.
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