By Cristina Gallardo and Mauro Orru

Airbus's chief executive said Europe still needs the Future Combat Air System fighter jet program after the German chancellor called into question his country's need for such an aircraft.

Speaking during an earnings call Thursday, Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said the project had hit a difficult juncture but it continues to make sense as a whole and that "an ambition of this scale can only be delivered through cooperation."

FCAS--bringing together Dassault Aviation, Airbus and Indra Sistemas--aims to build by 2040 a sixth-generation manned fighter jet kitted with artificial intelligence, advanced stealth capabilities, and connected to a swarm of drones and a combat cloud. It has an estimated total cost of 100 billion euros ($118.56 billion).

Over the last year, acrimony increased within the FCAS venture after France's Dassault Aviation said it should lead the development and construction of the aircraft as well as select its subcontractors. Airbus--which has the bulk of its defense business in Germany--has pushed back.

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in an interview on the German political podcast Machtwechsel that Germany and France don't share the same requirements for a fighter jet, which is leading to disagreements on specifications. Berlin is pondering whether it will still need manned fighter jets in 20 years' time and if it would be worth the expense, Merz added.

Faury said Airbus would support a revised FCAS that would produce two different fighter jets, tailored at the needs of each country. Additional partners could be invited to join the design of the jet made by Airbus, he said.

"If mandated by our customers, we would support a 2-fighter solution and are committed to playing a leading role in such a reorganized FCAS delivered through European cooperation," he added.

Faury said a deadlock on the fighter jet element shouldn't jeopardize the development of the entire project, adding that its other pillars--including drones and the combat cloud--were making good progress.

The FCAS aircraft is meant to replace Rafale jets in France's fleet and Eurofighter Typhoons in Germany and Spain's fleets. It is also one of two European programs aimed at potentially surpassing the U.S. F-35 jet.

Write to Cristina Gallardo at cristina.gallardo@wsj.com and Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 19, 2026 04:58 ET (09:58 GMT)

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