Overview
- IG Metall vice chair Jürgen Kerner and Airbus works‑council chief Thomas Pretzl urged ending the joint fighter with Dassault in a letter to German ministers.
- Their proposal calls for Germany and France to each build a national fighter while collaborating on drones and a shared Combat Cloud.
- Dassault CEO Eric Trappier has demanded clear project leadership for his company, sharpening the Airbus–Dassault dispute over control and workshare.
- German defense minister Boris Pistorius meets French counterpart Catherine Vautrin today, with a Merz–Macron timetable targeting an agreement by next Wednesday.
- Berlin is weighing the UK–Italy–Japan fighter project as a potential fallback, while FCAS is planned to replace Eurofighter and Rafale around 2040 in a roughly €100 billion program.