German minister: Failure of FCAS fighter jet project 'hurts a lot'

The collapse of a highly anticipated Franco-German fighter jet project "hurts a lot," German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday. 

"Every German-French project that is unsuccessful is one that I don't like, because I know how important Franco-German cooperation in Europe is," Pistorius said in Berlin.

The comments came after sources told dpa on Monday that the long-planned Future Combat Air System (FCAS) is to be scrapped after the companies involved - Dassault and Airbus - could not reach an agreement. 

The air combat system was intended to operate in conjunction with drones, ultimately replacing Germany's Eurofighter and France's Rafale fighter jets from 2040 onwards.

The decision to abandon the project, which also involved Spain, has reportedly been taken by Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Emmanuel Macron. 

"No agreement could be reached here," Pistorius said. "Both Friedrich Merz and I spoke with Dassault and with Airbus, intensively, bilaterally and multilaterally. Macron tried from his side."

The defence minister admitted that the "fact that the FCAS project has now been scrapped came as no surprise," but he insisted that the failure has not strained relations between Paris and Berlin. 

"It was an ambitious, large-scale European project that has now come crashing down against reality," Pistorius said. "We have to live with that. It doesn’t change our relationship with France in the slightest."

Pistorius declined to comment on which other project for a new fighter jet might now prevail. 

"We have also been in discussions with various stakeholders about this for months," said the minister.