France and Germany have agreed to abandon a joint fighter jet programme due to disagreements between the companies involved, Berlin said on Monday in a blow to European efforts to boost defence cooperation.
In 2017, France and Germany launched the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme to replace France’s Rafale jets and the Eurofighter planes used by Germany and Spain.
The project was seen as a key test of European efforts to work more closely on defence, as they sought to present a united front in the face of a hostile Russia amid souring ties with the United States.
But the multi-billion-dollar programme faced disagreements between the firms involved, France’s Dassault Aviation and Airbus, which represents Germany and Spain.
A German government official stated that Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron had reached a shared assessment that the companies would not be able to come together to build a joint combat aircraft.
“They acknowledge this reality,” he mentioned.
The official, however, said, “other parts of the wide-ranging project will continue.”
“The actual core of FCAS is to be continued as a European system,” the official further said, describing it as a nervous system that networks aircraft, drones and other components into an integrated whole.
“The French and German defence ministries are set to draw up a plan for defence cooperation focused on a few realistic and relevant projects at a forthcoming meeting,” the official added.
The news comes despite calls for Europe to integrate its fragmented militaries more closely as geopolitical turmoil worsens.
Russia’s war against Ukraine is in its fifth year, while European countries are increasingly worried about US security commitments to the continent under President Donald Trump.
There had been last-ditch efforts to salvage FCAS.
In March, two mediators, one from France and one from Germany, took on the task of coming up with proposals to rescue the initiative.
But they could not do so, while the head of Dassault Aviation insisted the firm could go it alone and was not in favour of ‘co-management’.
The project’s demise comes despite both Merz and Macron publicly insisting they were determined to make it succeed.
The German leader had said earlier in 2026 that he would do everything in his power and fight until the very last moment to get joint European projects off the ground here, and above all German-French projects.
Macron, speaking in April after talks with Merz, had denied then that the project was dead.
“We are continuing to move forward. Europe has never needed unity, greater independence and greater sovereignty more than it does now,” he said.
