Germany has rushed to deny it could ditch an important partnership with France and Spain aimed at building a new stealth jet.
This comes in light of a report claiming German Chancellor Olaf Scholf is in favour of joining forces with the UK working on a rival programme.
Hours after it was claimed the German politician fears the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme Berlin is currently part of has become an expensive extravagance, a spokesman at the German Defence Ministry said, as reported by the Telegraph: “Germany will not withdraw from the FCAS programme.”
Germany has so far poured approximately £35billion into FCAS, which aims at producing the next generation of fighter jets by 2040.
The FCAS project, worth some £87billion, is being developed while Britain’s BAE Systems and Rolls Royce are leading a similar project.
While Typhoon jets are designed, manufactured and maintained by BAE Systems in Lancashire, their export is subjected to the approval of not just the UK but also Germany, Spain and Italy due to the fact they were developed under NATO’s watch in the 1980s by a number of companies from these four countries.
The veto is linked to a ban enforced by Germany on the exports of weapons to Saudi Arabia in light of the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the country’s Crown Prince.
Derailing this deal, struck in 2018, could put thousands of engineering jobs in the UK at risk.
Germany departing from the FCAS programme would mark yet another major blow to the relations between Berlin and Paris and their collaboration on defence.
Earlier this year, France did not join the Sky Shield Initiative, a programme led by Germany and embraced by Britain to bolster NATO’s air defences over Europe.
Moreover, Berlin has partnered with Sweden, Spain and Italy to build the successor to its Leopard 2 tank – a move that could end the 2017 Franco-German deal aiming at creating new tanks.
