French defence minister doubts Germany's fighter jet development abilities

Germany currently has no means of developing a next-generation fighter jet on its own, France’s Defence Minister Catherine Vautrin said, as the Franco-German spat over a stalled €100 billion joint project continued to spill out into the open.

The dispute between France and Germany’s aviation giants has raised doubts about whether the Future Air Combat System (FCAS) project will continue. Both leading contractors, Germany’s Airbus Defence and France’s Dassault, have publicly aired their disagreements about the envisioned work.

Vautrin, France’s new defence minister, weighed into the fight this week, saying that “Germany has currently no capacity to manufacture a [fighter] jet.”

“You will agree that you cannot build an aircraft overnight,” Vautrin said on Tuesday in an interview with Europe 1. “It takes a bit of know-how.”

Those comments follow an admission by Thomas Pretzl, chairman of the Airbus Defence & Space works council, that he would rather build the next-generation fighter without the French company Dassault.

The current conflict revolves around who will take a lead role in developing the fighter jet part of the joint aviation combat system. While Dassault, France’s prime contractor, has made clear that it wants a dominant role in developing the jet part of the project, Germany’s Airbus Defence also wants to have a say in decision-making.

Originally, defence ministers from the three partner countries involved in FCAS – Germany, France, and Spain –were due to meet in Berlin in October to chart a way forward. This meeting was postponed due to the repeated reshuffles of the French government.

Vautrin will visit Berlin on Friday for the Group of 5 (E5) meeting, discussing support for Ukraine and security in Europe with her German, British, Italian, and Polish counterparts.

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