Kjøres UK av lasset i europisk jagerflysamarbeid? AIN

August 4, 2017

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France and Germany To Develop New Fighter Without UK? A Franco-German agreement last month to “jointly develop a future combat aircraft system” raises questions about the future of a similar Anglo-French agreement to develop a Future Combat Air System (FCAS) that was concluded in principle in March of last year. The Franco-German pact resulted from the annual meeting of the two nations’ Ministerial Council in Paris on July 13. French president Emmanuel Macron described it as “a revolution.” A joint statement declared that the two countries would develop a “roadmap” for the project by mid-2018. The £1.8 billion ($2.4 billion) contract for two Anglo-French FCAS operational demonstrators has not yet been issued by the two governments. Both BAE Systems and Dassault Aviation have said recently that they hope to receive it by year-end. The two companies previously received funding from the two governments for a joint feasibility study, then some pre-development work. Meanwhile they continued to work separately on the Taranis and Neuron unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) demonstrators respectively. Taranis is an all-British effort for which BAE Systems is the lead contractor; Dassault enjoys the same status on the six-nation pan-European Neuron project. Both these UCAVs have completed flying demonstration programs, although France recently decided to extend flight tests of the Neuron for a second time. Read More