Overview
- The Franco‑German cabinet meeting near Cologne, which convened Thursday, launched a Franco‑German pilot group to translate President Macron’s idea of a “dissuasion avancée” into concrete cooperation on warning, strike and missile‑defence systems.
- The new pilot group will focus on three technical tracks—radar early warning (including the Jewel/Odin’s Eye concept), long‑range precision strike (project ELSA) and integrated missile defence—while France will keep sole authority over any nuclear use.
- Paris and Berlin backed the reset with short operational steps: two French Rafale fighters were deployed to the Luftwaffe base at Nörvenich and a German Eurofighter was refuelled in flight by a French tanker to show early interoperability.
- Major strategic and industrial rifts remain, notably over Germany’s European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI), prior German buys of systems like the F‑35 and Arrow‑3, and the June collapse of the joint SCAF fighter project driven by Airbus‑Dassault disputes.
- The summit also covered EU competitiveness, the 2028–2034 budget and media cooperation, and officials warned that France’s 2027 presidential vote could threaten continuity of the Franco‑German defence push and shape future industry arrangements.