Overview
- President Emmanuel Macron said he and Chancellor Friedrich Merz agreed to launch a reconciliation mission between Dassault and Airbus in the coming weeks.
- Officials set April 15 as the decision point for the Future Combat Air System, with industry experts mediating between companies over the next four weeks.
- The core dispute concerns the fighter design, as France seeks a single nuclear- and carrier-capable aircraft while Germany promotes a two-aircraft option.
- FCAS is conceived as a networked system linking a new crewed fighter with armed and unarmed drones and advanced communications, with entry to service targeted in the 2040s.
- The Germany–France–Spain program is estimated to cost in the triple-digit billions and has already been postponed three times, most recently from an end-of-February goal.