Airbus Defence and Space CEO Michael Schoellhorn says the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) — the Franco‑German (and Spanish) effort to build a next‑generation fighter and supporting systems — will go on but must be restructured to reflect new realities. In an exclusive interview with DW, Schoellhorn acknowledged sharp disagreements with French partner Dassault Aviation over the manned fighter element and warned that political backing alone is not enough.
“Yes, there’s a problem with the manned‑fighter between two companies,” he said, noting that industrial alignment among partners is crucial for projects of this scale. Recent reporting suggested the €100 billion program might be close to collapse, with Dassault insisting on control of the fighter component.
Launched by French President Emmanuel Macron and then‑German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2017 and later joined by Spain, FCAS was conceived in a different strategic environment. Schoellhorn argued that the world has changed — development cycles have accelerated and defense demand has surged — so the program’s structure and timelines need to change too. “The times when you could define something very precisely with long requirement lists that would then come 15 or 20 years later are over,” he said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has voiced doubts that the jet currently under discussion matches Germany’s needs, saying it appears tailored to French requirements, including nuclear capability, rather than the Bundeswehr’s priorities. Merz warned that unresolved specification differences could end the joint effort.
French officials have at times sounded pessimistic, and some reports even declared FCAS dead. Yet France’s Minister Delegate for European Affairs, Benjamin Haddad, told DW at the Munich Security Conference that Paris remains committed. He stressed that bringing together governments, industry and firms with little prior cooperation is hard but necessary for an ambitious program.
Schoellhorn urged that FCAS need not hinge on a single, shared manned fighter. The program was always meant to combine a crewed aircraft with unmanned systems, a distributed “combat cloud” command‑and‑control network, sensors and simulation tools. He said much of the non‑flying infrastructure is progressing well and suggested a restructuring that could allow two different fighters to operate within a common system, preserving Franco‑German‑Spanish cooperation and making the overall program more resilient.
He pointed to the Eurofighter Typhoon partnership — involving Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo — as an example of successful multinational defense collaboration. Meanwhile, Germany has privately discussed downgrading the joint fighter ambition in favor of prioritizing the combat cloud and command‑and‑control capabilities.
The debate comes amid a major increase in European defense spending since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has both strained the defense industrial base and pushed for faster procurement. FCAS faces a choice: find an industrial compromise and adapt its structure to speed and differing national needs, or risk fragmentation of a program long touted as a cornerstone of European air power cooperation.
Edited by: Ashutosh Pandey