Spanish defence firm backs Belgium joining FCAS fighter project despite French qualms

Spanish defence firm Indra would welcome Belgium as a new partner in the joint European Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project, despite vocal public opposition from French aerospace contractor Dassault Aviation.

Belgium’s participation in the multi-billion-euro next-generation fighter project would be “a positive step in the current geopolitical context”, Jorge San José, Indra’s director of the FCAS project, told Euractiv.

Adding another country to the joint French-German-Spanish programme “strengthens the collaborative nature” of the programme, one of Europe’s largest and most ambitious defence projects, San José said.

Indra “will work on identifying potential synergies with Belgian industries and see how they can contribute to and support the execution of the programme,” San José said.

Dassault Aviation CEO Éric Trappier last week sharply criticised Belgium’s proposal to fully join the programme, saying that Belgium can’t expect to join the FCAS project if the Belgian armed forces also buy American-made F-35 fighter jets.

Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken quickly fired back, saying the country had no use for lessons “from arrogant industrialists” and that Brussels would need to re-evaluate joining FCAS.

Decisions on adding further partners to the programme are ultimately up to the French, German, and Spanish governments, not key industrial contractors. Belgium has been an official observer in the FCAS project for several years in order to evaluate its potential contribution.

San José declined to elaborate on potential synergies with Belgian firms. Alain de Neve, a defence aviation expert at Belgium’s Royal Higher Institute for Defence, told Euractiv that local expertise in electronics could help with avionics, secure communications, and advanced simulation.

The German defence ministry and Germany’s lead contractor on the FCAS programme, Airbus Defence, both declined to comment on Belgium’s potential membership. The French and Spanish defence ministries did not respond to requests for comment.

(bts, aw)