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Europe must unite on defence or risk fighter jet programme, warns Airbus
Europe must unite on defence or risk fighter jet programme, warns Airbus
Christopher Jasper
Fri, February 20, 2026 at 12:39 AM GMT+9 3 min read
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Guillaume Faury, Airbus’s chief executive, says Britain, France and Germany must come together to make joint purchases - Ed Jones/Getty Images
The boss of Airbus has called for European unity on defence as he suggested that a Franco-German-Spanish fighter jet pact was at risk of collapse.
Guillaume Faury said Britain, France and Germany must come together to make joint purchases if Europe is to establish a significant war-fighting capability.
He praised recent government pledges to boost military budgets in the wake of Donald Trump’s warning that the US would no longer bankroll the defence of Europe.
However, Mr Faury admitted that the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) – a joint project between Berlin, Madrid and Paris to develop a next-generation fighter jet – was “at a difficult juncture” and suggested Airbus may seek alternative partnerships.
The Airbus chief said extra defence spending would count for nothing if countries failed to coordinate spending. Without that, European contractors would struggle to get new projects off the ground and compete with their US rivals, he said.
Mr Faury said Europe had underspent by a “huge amount” before Mr Trump’s intervention and that while it was now on the right path to bolstering the “resilience and sovereignty” of its defences, collaboration needed to be taken to a new level.
The chief executive said: “We need consolidation of demand, meaning governments, military customers, coming together for common needs at the same time to trigger scale.
“When we work at scale in Europe we are very competitive compared to our American colleagues.
“But when we’re fragmented and we have smaller demand, not aligned in terms of timing across Europe, it is very difficult to launch and be successful on programmes.”
He said that cross-border mergers that would help give European defence players critical mass also remain too difficult.
Warplane row
However, Mr Faury also warned that Airbus was prepared to seek new partners with which to build a new €100bn (£87bn) European fighter if a row with current ally Dassault Aviation was not resolved – potentially opening the way for talks with Britain’s BAE Systems.
Airbus currently makes warplanes in Germany as part of the Eurofighter alliance with BAE Systems, but agreed to partner with Dassault amid political pressure after Brexit.
That partnership turned toxic last year after Dassault’s boss suggested Berlin was more concerned with the cost of the jet than its ability to succeed in battle against Russia or China and wanted the plane for “peanuts”.
Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, added to the tension this week, saying there was “a real problem” over requirements for the jet, with France demanding that it be able to launch nuclear weapons and operate from aircraft carriers – which are capabilities Germany does not need.
Mr Faury said: “We’re at a difficult juncture. There is a deadlock that is linked to expectations that differ between partners on what leadership means and what cooperation means.
“If there is a way forward with two fighters, it could be an opportunity to have other partners with us.”
The remarks may open the door to Airbus and Germany partnering with Sweden’s Saab, which makes the Gripen fighter, or even joining a rival programme based around BAE’s Tempest jet and also including Italy and Japan.
Mr Faury said other aspects of the Dassault alliance, including work on an AI-powered “combat cloud” of fighters and drones, were progressing well, and that it was for the German and French governments to decide whether to pull the plug on the partnership.
Airbus posted a profit of €7.1bn last year on revenues that rose 6pc to €73.4bn on the strength of higher airliner deliveries.
However, it said a shortage of new engines from Pratt & Whitney will prevent it from lifting production rates to the planned level this year.
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