Anyone who wants to be taken seriously in the European defense industry shows up to Eurosatory, France's largest defense trade show, held every two years. This week, the industry is once again showcasing its latest advances at the sprawling exhibition grounds in Villepinte, near Paris. More than 2,000 exhibitors mingle with military officials, politicians, and industry professionals.
With order books full , the mood should be upbeat. European governments want to reduce their defense dependency on the United States and are investing hundreds of billions of euros to advance that goal.
However, the prevailing optimism is being tempered by disappointment. Europe's most ambitious defense project aimed at greater strategic autonomy effectively collapsed just days ago: Germany and France dealt what appears to be a fatal blow to their joint sixth-generation fighter aircraft program. The centerpiece of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) will not be built as a joint project after all.
Is the FCAS flop a watershed moment?
French Defense Minister Catherine Vautrin avoided the subject in her opening speech on Monday. Nevertheless, there are growing signs that Paris and Berlin have become deadlocked not only over the fighter jet program, but also their joint battle tank project.
President Emmanuel Macron and former Chancellor Angela Merkel launched FCAS in 2017 in response to Brexit and the election of US President Donald Trump to the White House. The fighter aircraft initiative was accompanied by a Franco-German tank program called the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS). Under the arrangement, France was to take the lead on the fighter jet project, while Germany would oversee the tank program.
Since then, President Macron has repeatedly warned that if FCAS fails, MGCS could ultimately suffer the same fate.
Germany considers new fighter project after FCAS collapse
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
France and Germany shifting from consensus to competition
Last weekend, Armin Papperger, head of Germany's largest defense company Rheinmetall, fueled the uncertainty. Papperger told Welt am Sonntag that Paris is considering drastically cutting funding for the project, but said that no final decision has been made.
"I take these warnings very seriously," said Ulrike Franke of the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR) in Paris, speaking to the German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk . She added that the tank project has faced increasing difficulties and progressed more slowly than FCAS from the outset.
Meanwhile, Germany's Defense Ministry said that Germany and France had agreed to continue developing MGCS in a "platform-independent" manner and to focus on the program's core elements. Whether that effectively renders a joint main battle tank obsolete remains an open question, a ministry spokesperson said Monday.
Franke sees several parallels with the failed aircraft project. As with the fighter jet program, differing military requirements in the two countries are complicating efforts to develop a joint tank. The German military prioritizes maximum protection and firepower for NATO's eastern flank, while France has favored lighter tanks that can be airlifted for rapid intervention missions.
Back in 2024 cooperation was tight: German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and France's Minister for the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu agreed to work together on the MGCS 'tank of the future' Image: Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty Images
A battle for technological leadership
Yet the most striking parallels lie within the defense industry itself, which German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius openly blames for the collapse of FCAS.
"At the government level, our hands were tied. The German and French governments would very much have liked to continue the project," Pistorius said.
In the FCAS program, French aerospace group Dassault Aviation is widely seen as a difficult partner that politicians were unable to rein in. "From the very beginning, not everyone was on the same wavelength," said Cedric Perrin, chairman of the Defense Committee in the French Senate.
A drawn-out dispute over intellectual property rights and project leadership ultimately became a battle for future technological dominance in the defense sector.
A similar dilemma has emerged in the MGCS tank project. Here, the dominant player is not Dassault but Rheinmetall, Europe's leading ammunition producer.
The project was originally intended to be led by the Franco-German joint venture KNDS, which combines Germany's Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France's Nexter.
However, Germany later pushed through Rheinmetall's participation with strong political backing. The company aims to become Europe's largest defense manufacturer by 2030. From the French perspective, Rheinmetall's involvement has significantly altered the project's delicate power balance.
The Panther KF51 battle tank, developed by Rheinme…
Read the full article at Deutsche Welle (English) →
Germany