PARIS: Europe is embarking on an expensive and politically charged effort to develop a new combat jet that will shape the future of the European fighter industry and its three existing programmes: Eurofighter, France’s Rafale and Sweden’s Gripen.
Two people with direct knowledge of the matter said early talks had started on whether and how European countries could co-operate on a new sixth-generation fighter, which could involve a combination of manned and unmanned systems.
Though complicated by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, business executives and politicians at the Paris Airshow last week said US President Donald Trump’s cooler stance towards Europe had given the effort some fresh momentum.
But they warned of massive hurdles, including bickering among European states and companies, the troubled history of past joint projects such as the A400M military transport plane, and the sheer cost of developing advanced military aircraft.
Any project is likely to cost far more than the 10 billion-plus euros sunk into the Eurofighter, the last joint fighter built, at a time when Europe is grappling with other expensive problems such as increased militancy and the influx of well over a million migrants from the Middle East and Africa.
Yet EU politicians are determined to increase cooperation on defence and security in the face of a more assertive Russian military, and they are wary of effectively leaving the fighter jet market to the United States.
“It’s the same with food.
Some things you have to be able to do yourself,” Monika Hohlmeier, a German member of the European Parliament and chair of the parliament’s Sky & Space Intergroup, said during a visit to the A400M at the air show.
Russia is also working on a new fighter jet that would be “smarter, faster,” and could fly further and higher, the head of its MiG aviation firm said.
Germany, which has begun early work on a next-generation fighter, last month asked the United States for a classified briefing on the US F-35 stealth fighter built by Lockheed Martin Corp, as it prepares for a more intense look at fighter options after the September 24 election.
Corporate rivalries add another level of complexity.
“We are already working on the Next Generation Weapon System, which has been initiated by Germany but with strong interest from Spain and other nations, as part of a bigger concept of future combat systems including unmanned aircraft,” Fernando Alonso, head of military aircraft at Airbus, told a briefing ahead of the Paris Airshow.
“And I very much hope that we will see France involved in that because it is clearly very much in all our interest to see a common solution,” he added.
Airbus represents Germany and Spain in the maturing Eurofighter programme, which also includes Britain through BAE Systems and Italy via Leonardo.
France, however, dropped out of that project early on due to disagreements over the sharing out of work, with its Dassault Aviation going on to develop the Rafale fighter jet.— Reuters
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