Dassault Aviation and Airbus push for progress on FCAS

The two aerospace giants are the leading partners on the Franco-German-Spanish combat air system project, which will consist of a Next Generation Fighter, new missiles such as cruise missiles, swarming drones called Remote Carriers, satellites, existing aircraft and NATO navies.

All of them are to be networked together through a combat cloud, a shared internet database, and this combat system is expected to achieve full operational capability by 2040.

“If Europe does not move forward – and move forward quickly – on this program, it will be impossible to maintain the development and production capabilities needed for a sovereign defence industry,” Dassault and Airbus said in a joint statement.

The project faces competition from Britain with its plan for a new fighter jet called the Tempest.