Six leading Spanish defence companies have offered to help develop a new European combat aircraft, days after France and Germany abandoned plans to jointly build the continent’s flagship fighter jet.
The Future Combat Air System (FCAS), a sixth-generation jet meant to enter service around 2040, had been billed as the central test of European defence cooperation and strategic autonomy. Berlin and Paris scrapped its core fighter component on June 8 after years of industrial wrangling.
In a joint declaration on June 11, the six firms — Indra, the Spanish arm of Airbus, GMV, Sener, ITP and Grupo Oesía — said they were ready to work with Spain and any partners on a next-generation combat system. They warned that the sector could not “afford to waste more time”.
The companies said prolonged uncertainty threatened not only their own expertise and resources but also the stability of their partners and supply chains.
Spanish defence minister Margarita Robles described the failure as “very worrying for Europe and for Europe’s strategic autonomy”, accusing the manufacturers of putting commercial interests ahead of the continent’s security. She said Spain would approach other countries to keep a joint project alive.
FCAS had been led by France’s Dassault and by Airbus, which represented German and Spanish interests. The two could not agree on who would control the programme or on how to share work and intellectual property.
France and Germany said they would press on with a digital “combat cloud” linking aircraft, drones and satellites, the project’s other main pillar. An Airbus-led grouping of German firms, branded Team Gen 6, has meanwhile formed to pursue a replacement fighter.
The Spanish companies signalled they would prefer a wider multinational effort, leaving open a tie-up with the British-Italian-Japanese Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) or with Sweden’s Saab.
Shares in Indra, which led Spain’s work on sensors and electronics, fell almost 5 per cent after the collapse was confirmed.
The breakdown is a blow to leaders who have pledged greater military independence as President Donald Trump casts doubt on United States security guarantees and Russia’s war in Ukraine continues. It leaves Europe without a unified sixth-generation fighter and underlines the gap between European promises on strategic autonomy and the record on delivering big defence programmes.
