Future Combat Air System - FCAS, manned and unmanned european system by Airbus & Dassault. YouTube
Defense News: Europe’s next-gen fighter jet is stuck in the bickering phase
COLOGNE, Germany — The future Franco-German combat aircraft program is set to begin in earnest early next year, but a key project phase is already in full swing: the bickering.
On the surface, the two main companies involved — Dassault and Airbus — have “a clear common vision on the project,” as an Airbus spokesman put it. But there is also the politicking, the jockeying for position and the mistrust that tends to show itself when there is big money on the table.
That pertains to the second-tier suppliers, with French business weekly Challenges describing a veritable “guerre” — war — between Airbus and French electronics specialist Thales. At issue is who will lead the critical networking segment of the future weapon system, the secret sauce for turning flying pieces of bent metal into the type of lethal aerial “system of systems” that Berlin and Paris want.
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WNU Editor:It is good to know that U.s. defense contractors are not the only ones who have problems in delivering weapon systems.
