MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd December, 2022) French company Dassault Aviation and German and Spanish subsidiaries of Airbus on Thursday reached an agreement to move to a new stage in the development of the European Future Combat Air System (FCAS) fighter jet after a year of negotiations, Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier said.
"Today it was done, we reached an agreement with Airbus. All the points of contention have been settled," Trappier said in an interview with le Figaro newspaper.
The agreement now has to be formally signed in the coming days, Trappier said, adding that the parties will move on to the development of a demonstration model, which should see the light in 2029.
French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu welcomed the agreement between Dassault Aviation and Airbus, calling it a concrete step in defense cooperation in the European Union.
"I am pleased with the agreement between the companies to move to a new stage of the FCAS project. This project reflects concrete steps in cooperation that we are pursuing in the EU in the sphere of defense and armaments and in which France plays a central role," Lecornu said on Twitter.
A joint project between France, Germany, and Spain to develop a new FCAS fighter jet was launched in 2017. The project aims to create a replacement for the French Rafale jet, owned by Dassault Aviation, and the Eurofighter jet being developed by a consortium of Alenia Aeronautica and BAE Systems.
FCAS is Europe's largest weapons project, with an estimated cost of $105 billion.
