By Cristina Gallardo

Dassault Aviation denied pushing to get 80% of the workload for a pan-European project to develop a sixth-generation fighter jet.

The French aerospace and defense group is cooperating with Germany's Airbus, Spain's Indra Sistemas and France's Thales in the Future Combat Air System, but the program has been hit by delays amid media reports that Dassault wanted to be responsible for the majority of the project's workload.

On Tuesday, Chief Executive Eric Trappier rebuffed the reports and said Dassault has requested being able to select its subcontractors within the program. He added Dassault is looking for ways to cooperate efficiently.

"We are not requesting 80% of the work. That's not at all what Dassault wants," Trappier told a press conference.

On July 9, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged there were differences of opinion on the composition of the consortium involved in FCAS, which hadn't yet been resolved.

Trappier said the project needed clear leadership, and it was necessary to clarify everybody's goals and obligations.

Asked if he would take Dassault out of FCAS if he couldn't get his demands, Trappier said: "It is not a question of leaving the project or not, it is a question of whether the project will continue."

FCAS, which aims to have its fighter jets entering service around 2040, competes with another project called the Global Combat Air Programme. The latter brings together the U.K.'s BAE Systems, Italy's Leonardo and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, to put a new stealth fighter with supersonic capability in the skies by 2035.

Trappier spoke shortly after Dassault posted a rise in first-half sales fueled by a contract with the Indian Navy for the acquisition of 26 Rafale Marine jets.

Adjusted net sales, a closely watched metric, reached 2.85 billion euros ($3.33 billion), up from 2.54 billion euros for the same period in 2024.

Dassault said it delivered 7 Rafale fighter jets and 12 Falcon business jets in the first six months.

The group continues to target 25 deliveries of its Rafale fighter jets and 40 of its Falcon jets this year, and sales of around 6.5 billion euros for the whole year, it said.

Dassault's order intake grew to 8.075 billion euros in the first half from 5.13 billion euros in the same period a year earlier.

Net profit fell to 334.4 million euros from 476.2 million euros in the first half of 2024. The company's backlog reached a record 48.29 billion euros, it said.

Adjusted operating profit, another closely watched metric, reached 180 million euros compared with 170 million euros a year earlier.

Write to Cristina Gallardo at cristina.gallardo@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 22, 2025 13:18 ET (17:18 GMT)

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