The head of the European aerospace company Airbus said he still believes in the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) as a platform, even as he doubles down on developing separate fighter jets.

The struggling €100 billion programme to develop an aerial combat system centred on a next-generation fighter jet has been stuck for over a year due to industry and political differences between France and Germany.

“Collaboration is not a walk in the park,” Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury admitted during the opening remarks of his company’s defence summit on Wednesday.

However, Faury stressed that he continues to believe in a European future combat air system, which is more than just a plane. He pointed out that most of the current difficulties lie in the fighter jet component of the project.

Airbus has previously suggested separating the fighter-jet component of the overarching aerial combat system, which would allow Germany and France to develop their own jets. Faury also compared the potential FCAS fighter jet to the American F-35, which is essentially three different planes.

According to the CEO, the so-called combat cloud, that connects different military platforms from planes and helicopters to drones, is something that “we need to continue anyway”.

The joint project between France, Germany and Spain is currently on the brink of failure because two lead contractors – Dassault Aviation for France and Airbus Defence and Space for Germany – are having difficulty working together.

Meanwhile, Germany and France’s ideas of what the future fighter jet will look like are increasingly diverging. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently pointed out that his country has different needs from France, which would like to use the fighter jet for its nuclear programme and aircraft carrier.

What’s more, the Airbus boss explained that this program was started before the war against Ukraine broke out, “under a number of assumptions which are no longer valid today”.

It is now up to the governments to decide the fighter jet’s future.

Following several attempts to find a solution, the leaders of Germany and France once more tasked their respective defence ministers with finding one at the end of April.

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