A French senator has claimed that Airbus Germany failed to produce several technical sub-assemblies for the Future Combat Air System, and that this shortfall is what pushed Dassault Aviation to demand stronger governance over the New Generation Fighter program.
The remarks, first identified by Opex360, emerged during a Senate budget hearing. According to Senator Hugues Saury, co-rapporteur for France’s defense equipment program, Airbus’s German subsidiary “was not able to carry out the technical sub-assemblies for which it had responsibility.”
Saury told the Senate’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that this alleged failure contributed to strained relations between engineering teams and led Dassault to request greater authority as NGF prime contractor.
“The FCAS has not moved in the right direction during 2025. We are now facing a double deadlock, industrial and political,” Saury said, adding that the industrial blockage he described came first and triggered the governance rupture.
Dassault argues current structure limits its leadership
Dassault has long argued that the current governance structure limits its ability to lead the project effectively, since Airbus holds double voting weight through its German and Spanish subsidiaries.
Dassault CEO Eric Trappier has previously warned that the existing model resembles the joint-venture structure used on Eurofighter, which he says dilutes leadership and slows progress, contrasting it with the leaner governance applied to the nEUROn demonstrator.
Wider uncertainty around FCAS
The senator’s comments come as FCAS faces wider strategic uncertainty. The German Air Force has examined long-term alternatives to the program, and Paris and Berlin have discussed the possibility of separating the fighter from the broader system-of-systems architecture.
Saury also warned that political obstacles remain unresolved, particularly Germany’s parliamentary veto on arms exports, which he said continues to threaten the program’s long-term business model despite a 2022 export framework. France, Germany, and Spain are expected to decide on Phase 2 funding by the end of 2025.
