De Wever: Halting European fighter jet project is "pure stupidity"
Prime minister Bart De Wever has sharply criticised the decision to suspend development of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) fighter jet, calling the impasse between France and Germany a costly failure of European ambition. He made the remarks on Tuesday at a conference organised by two think tanks in Brussels.
In the current geopolitical context, European countries must strengthen their defence through joint projects, particularly in the field of air defence, he argued. "To think that you can develop a fighter jet on your own, or that you can do it faster on your own, is simply to ignore reality. That is pure stupidity," he added.
The multi-billion-euro project has been years in the making. The FCAS was designed to link aircraft and drones via a digital communications network, known as the "combat cloud," but has been at a standstill for months due to a deep industrial dispute between Dassault and Airbus over the division of work and intellectual property.
On Monday, German officials revealed that France and Germany have abandoned the project. French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Friedrich Merz were said to have reached the shared assessment that Dassault and Airbus will not be able to come to an agreement.
"What a waste of time, what arrogance!"
"I was hugely disappointed when I read that France and Germany had been unable to reach an agreement on the development," De Wever said on Tuesday. "What a waste of time, what arrogance!"
Belgium has participated in the project as an observer since 2023. The previous government had earmarked 68 million euros for research and development, though Defence minister Theo Francken told parliament in February that only between 10 and 20 million euros of that amount had actually been spent on Belgian companies and research centres.
PHOTO © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
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