By Pierre Tran
Paris – French and German ministers are due to meet this summer, providing a timely target for concluding a dispute over a European project for a new generation fighter, a senior German government official said May 29.
“I hope that we will come to a conclusion this summer,” the official said. “There will be a German French ministerial meeting this summer. I think that is a point we should aim for to make the necessary decisions.”
Those decisions relate to whether France and Germany will go ahead on a project to build a prototype new generation fighter (NGF), the main — first — pillar in a future combat air system (FCAS), worth an estimated total €100 billion ($116 billion).
The French prime contractor, Dassault Aviation, and its German industrial partner, Airbus Defence & Space, have been unable to resolve a row stemming from the former’s claim to clear leadership, and a 51 percent share in value of the fighter project. Both companies have said they were ready to go their own way on the fighter front.
“Everybody is pulling to save this project because it is absolutely necessary to cooperate on different platforms,” the official said. “But on the other hand there must also be the will of the industrial partners to cooperate…”
France and Germany are in talks on how to cooperate with other elements of FCAS.
“There are ongoing discussions between the two governments on how we will continue to work,” the official said, referring to the combat cloud network for command and control, and new engines.
There was good cooperation between the German and French engine partners, MTU and Safran, the official said.
“It is not impossible,” a second German senior official said of the fighter project. “It is possible. It is a great idea pouring the European resources together and build a joint project,” the second official said, while adding the project has run into difficulties.
Meanwhile, Dassault executive chairman Eric Trappier said May 18 Sweden could act as a mediator in the dispute with Germany on the fighter project, with Stockholm drawing on its knowledge of building weapons. The UK was another possible moderator, he said.
The Dassault executive was speaking in a public debate with Philippe Etienne, a former diplomat who served as French ambassador to the US, Germany, and Russia. The theme of the debate was “Should we arm up to maintain the peace?”
“To find a certain balance when there is dispute between two parties, there is need for a third party,” Trappier said. “The British could be one of those countries,” he said, as the UK has much experience in acting as mediator.
“It could be the Swedish, who have experience in defense,” he said, particularly in the defense industry, which helped to give an understanding of the situation. Swedish companies such as Saab were held by the Wallenberg family, he said, adding that they were on good terms with the family.
It was unclear for now what the solution to the fighter project might be, he said.
Trappier and Etienne were guest speakers at a debate on war and peace held at Collège des Bernardins, a cultural and art centre housed in a building dating back to the 13th century, then run by Cistercian monks, part of the scholarly Paris Latin Quarter.
Paris and Berlin appointed two mediators, Laurent Collet-Billon and Frank Haun, who presented different views in their separate reports, German financial daily Handelsblatt reported April 18. Collet-Billon was previously head of Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA), the French arms procurement office. Haun was chief executive of KNDS, a Franco-German maker of land weapons.
France and Sweden have recently forged closer military ties.
Stockholm said May 19 it had picked French Naval Group (NG), a warship builder, to supply four FDI frigates, in a deal worth $4 billion. President Emmanuel Macron thanked Sweden for picking NG, which he said followed the French order for Saab’s Global Eye spy plane.
The French order of four Saab spy planes, fitted on Bombardier jets, with options for two more, allows the French air force to replace its fleet of Boeing AWACS aircraft. Paris has also ordered the Saab Giraffe 1X air defence radar, fitted on Scania vehicles.
Airbus DS chief executive Michael Schoellhorn said May 20 he saw there were differences between Airbus and Dassault which could not be resolved, and the French and German defense ministries were working on how to move forward, Reuters reported.
The Airbus executive hoped a political decision could be made ahead of Berlin’s ILA air show on June 10, the news agency reported. He said the split with Dassault offered options which included two different fighter jets or a new European partnership, but Germany could not take on the fighter project on its own, the agency reported. The combat cloud and collaborative combat aircraft for drones to fly with new fighter jets could go ahead, he said.
Schoellhorn was speaking at a conference just outside Munich, dubbed Airbus Defence Summit. Influencers were invited and given privileged access denied to journalists, said a reporter who attended. Airbus DS was not available for comment.
On the broader theme of European arms production, the second senior German official said European governments should avoid a “defense production nationalism.”
Germany should take care to spend a certain percentage of its increasing military budget in the coming years on subcontractors in other European countries, such as France, Italy, and Spain, the official said.
“We want to be not just more European in terms of more European political decision-making, we also want to make sure we are going to be more European in terms of making our equipment,” the official said. “I hope our governments will see to it that it’s not going to lead to a patchwork situation but to a more cohesive situation.”