Germany has formally ended the joint manned fighter component of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz having informed French President Emmanuel Macron that the two countries will not build a shared sixth-generation aircraft, German business daily Handelsblatt reported on June 8, 2026, citing the German federal government.
Merz conveyed the decision on June 6, 2026, on the sidelines of the EU Western Balkans Summit in Montenegro. The manned New Generation Fighter (NGF) was intended to form the operational core of FCAS, alongside a digital combat cloud that connects aircraft, drones, and satellites.
Germany and France will continue to jointly develop the “system of systems”, the combat cloud architecture that forms the other main pillar of the FCAS. The division of responsibilities for that element is to be discussed at the next Franco-German ministerial council, currently expected on July 17, 2026.
An industrial deadlock governments could not break
The workshare dispute between Airbus and Dassault Aviation had been the program’s central obstacle since at least February 2026, when Merz publicly questioned whether France and Germany’s divergent requirements could be satisfied by a single platform. France requires a nuclear-capable, carrier-compatible aircraft; Germany does not.
Despite a mediation process launched after a Macron-Merz dinner in Brussels on March 18, 2026, the two industrial parties could not reach agreement. The mediation collapsed on April 18, 2026, with the German mediator concluding that a jointly built crewed fighter was no longer feasible. A Macron-Merz bilateral on the sidelines of an informal EU summit in Cyprus on April 23, 2026 kicked the decision back to defense ministries, with Macron telling reporters two days later that the program was “not at all” dead.
The underlying sticking point never shifted. Dassault CEO Eric Trappier repeatedly insisted on a prime-contractor role for the French company, rejecting parity with Airbus. According to German government sources cited by Handelsblatt, Merz personally attempted to persuade Trappier to accept an equal partnership. That effort also failed.
Germany’s new national aviation strategy, to be formally adopted by cabinet on June 10, 2026, and presented at ILA Berlin, asserts that Airbus must co-lead any future German combat aircraft program. The announcement timed to ILA is deliberate, Handelsblatt reported, signaling Germany’s stated ambition to become a leading aviation nation.
Spain, the program’s third partner, had grown increasingly frustrated with the unresolved Berlin-Paris dispute. Madrid had already hedged its position by approving funding for an Airbus-Indra joint study on a future national combat air system alongside the Indra-led Siagen program.
Belgium, which joined as an observer in May 2024, moved further still: after Merz’s February comments, Defense Minister Theo Francken declared “SCAF is dead” and Brussels subsequently announced plans to order 11 additional F-35As.
Two jets, two programs
Dassault will now develop France’s sixth-generation fighter independently, funded in part through the more than €4 billion committed to the Rafale F5 standard under France’s actualized Loi de programmation militaire.
Airbus will lead the German program, with Spain expected to participate. Airbus has also held talks with Sweden’s Saab, which Berlin regards as a significantly more cooperative industrial partner. Both programs are currently expected to produce aircraft in the early 2040s.
The decision increases pressure on the parallel Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) tank program. Paris has previously indicated that a collapse of the joint fighter could put MGCS cooperation under review, though no formal announcement has been made.
FCAS was launched in 2017 by Macron and then-Chancellor Angela Merkel as Europe’s flagship sixth-generation combat air program, estimated at approximately €100 billion.
