Faury calls for shared systems on European future fighters but plays down merger prospects | News

Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury has reiterated his belief that Europe’s two next-generation combat aircraft programmes should move closer together to save costs but stresses he does not see the parallel efforts merging soon.

France, Germany and Spain are currently working together under the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme, while Italy and the UK – plus Japan – are aligned through the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP).

Both efforts foresee the development of a sixth-generation manned fighter, alongside supporting unmanned ‘loyal wingman’ or remote carrier vehicles, new weapons, and a combat cloud.

While in their early stages, the governments involved have pledged billions towards the development efforts being led by numerous industrial champions, including Airbus Defence & Space.

“I’m not suggesting today those programmes would be merged into one programme – I don’t think that’s realistic this stage – but I say that there’s maybe a way to bring them closer together,” says Faury, speaking to FlightGlobal as part of a wide-ranging interview ahead of the Paris air show.

This would see the two efforts “sharing common avionics, common engine technologies, common systems”, he says.

“There are ways of doing things together moving forward without necessarily going from two projects to one project.

“My personal view is that there’s not room for spending so much money in Europe on technologies which are very expensive.”

But with multiple companies and national interests already in play developing those supporting technologies it is unclear how such a rationalisation could be achieved.

On the engine side alone, Rolls-Royce and counterparts from Japan and Italy are developing a next-generation powerplant through GCAP, while MTU Aero Engines and Safran Aircraft Engines have formed the FCAS-facing EUMET joint venture, with Spain’s ITP Aero also a contributor.

Faury stresses that such duplication is less of an issue during the current technology development phase but “it becomes more important as we come close to committing big tickets, big money”.

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}