Germany is pushing to join Britain’s £50bn
future fighter-jet programme after pulling out of a deal with France.
The country’s biggest warplane maker told the Farnborough Air Show on Wednesday that the EU powerhouse should join forces with Britain, Italy and Japan on the new Tempest stealth jet plan after a rival French agreement was dropped.
Michael Schoellhorn, the head of Airbus’s Munich-based defence arm, said if Germany had enough influence over the programme and a share of the work, it could be tempted to join Britain in developing the new jets.
“What we’re ready to do is to join something or to build something where we have a significant portion of the work and the leadership. That’s currently being explored,” he said.
Mr Schoellhorn said that in an ideal world, Eurofighter would have survived the schism over Brexit and formed the basis of a European grouping to develop a next-generation warplane.
He said: “If we do a mental exercise and project ourselves back to 2017, and we would not have started the old FCAS, then likely we would have continued with the Eurofighter team.
“That would have been an organic answer. But time has passed. There’s a project that has already started; Japan has joined. So, to be determined.”
In a sign that Germany is considering joining GCAP, Mr Schoellhorn said an arrangement reflecting Germany’s contribution, with Germany potentially ordering 150 planes, would be required.
He said that amid the “disappointment” regarding the failure of the FCAS, there was “obviously relief that the impasse is behind us and now we can open a new chapter”.
