Berlin is considering making it easier for London to sell Eurofighter to Saudi Arabia in order to ally with the British, Japanese and Italians after leaving France and Spain
“Germany could abandon the €100 billion fighter jet project it has with France.” This headline, published on Wednesday by Britain’s leading newspaper, The Times, is a storm for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program. The country is now equally committed to France and Spain to replace, with a new generation system, the current fleets of German and Spanish Eurofighter fighter jets and French Rafale, with 000 on the horizon.
The FCAS program plans to conduct the first tests of the next-generation combat aircraft (NGF), which forms the central pillar of the initiative, in 2029. A year ago, the three partners consolidated their commitment with an agreement that unblocked their stoppage after months of disagreements between the French company Dassault Aviaton, which leads the industrial part of its country, and Airbus, with the same role in Germany, on account of the distribution of the workload, and under the gaze of Indra, partner on the Spanish side.
More recently, last September, doubts returned about the continuity of the FCAS on account of the French plans to modernize its Rafale fighter jet, which could lead it to obtain capabilities similar to those foreseen in the FCAS a decade earlier and at a lower cost.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom is moving forward with its partners Japan and Italy in its Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), a direct competitor to FCAS. It is this programme that Germany is now considering joining, if it abandons its current commitments to France and Spain, to become the fourth partner, along with the three mentioned above.
It so happens that Berlin is blocking the sale to Saudi Arabia of at least 48 more Eurofighters (it already has 72) led by its partner the United Kingdom in this other program, alluding to human rights issues that cast a shadow over the Saudi regime. On this point, Germany may end up lifting that veto, which France is now trying to take advantage of with its Rafale as an alternative, while Berlin considers agreeing with the United Kingdom to join the GCAP.