Ben Pawlowski
SPAIN’S defence minister will meet with her colleagues from Germany and France in October in an attempt to revive a joint fighter jet programme beset with infighting and delays.
Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, revealed the planned get-together on the sidelines of a bilateral meeting with his Spanish counterpart Margarita Robles in Berlin earlier this week.
“We will all pull together, and national interests will need to be put aside by one or the other or all of us. It is clear we are damned to succeed, we need this project,” Pistorius told reporters.
Pistorius, Robles and the French armed forces minister, Sebastien Lecornu, will discuss the issues that have delayed the joint project, before presenting their respective leaders with a series of options later in the year.
The project is set to cost more than €100 billion as the trio of nations seek to modernise their fleet of fighter jets with new sixth-generation aircraft.
But officials from Berlin and Paris are at loggerheads over French demands for a work-share of 80% in the project, known as FCAS, according to a defence industry source cited by Reuters.
Asked what needed to happen to get the project back on track, Pistorius told reporters: “The answer is rather simple. Contracts are struck to be adhered to…if there is a wish for changes, then these are only possible after fresh negotiations between the partners.
“One thing is clear: this process must not carry on for ages. We need to gain speed now because the project does not allow for any further delays.”
Robles, a key Socialist ally of prime minister Pedro Sanchez, reaffirmed her backing for the project, adding: “This is an essential and fundamental project that we must invigorate, and we must invigorate it as much as possible.
“Spain’s commitment is total and this programme must continue.”
The move comes just weeks after Spain shelved plans to buy over €6 billion state-of-the-art F-35 Lightning II fighter jets from the US – instead focusing on purchasing European alternatives.
Earlier this week, data published by NATO revealed that Spain is currently spending 2% of its GDP on defence, finally fulfilling a long-standing target eleven years after the goal was set.
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