France is open to cooperation with Sweden in creating a new generation fighter jet, a representative of the Elysee Palace told journalists on Friday. This statement by the French official came ahead of President Emmanuel Macron‘s visit to the Scandinavian country, scheduled for Monday.
“We are both looking for fairly similar, relatively small aircraft,” said the French official. He added that there are many opportunities for cooperation. In particular, France has its own production of aircraft engines, which Sweden lacks, and this could become one of the areas of cooperation.
History of cooperation and competition
These statements by France are the clearest proposal to Stockholm after the loud failure of the decade-long project of a new generation fighter jet between France, Germany, and Spain, known as Future Combat Air System (FCAS). The program reached a deadlock due to disagreements between French Dassault Aviation and German Airbus Defence and Space and ultimately collapsed last spring.
The competition between Paris and Berlin to attract Stockholm is one of the events in the aerospace sector that is being watched most closely. Earlier, POLITICO reported that Germany had already approached Sweden.
French and Swedish fighter jet manufacturers
The Swedish defense giant Saab produces its own fourth-generation fighter jet Gripen, although the engine of this combat aircraft uses key technologies from the American company GE Aerospace. The engines for the French Rafale fighter jets are produced in France by the company Safran.
“Dassault builds its own aircraft, and Saab builds its own: these are two competitors with fairly similar approaches who respect each other. In the past, they have already cooperated,” said the official, emphasizing, however, that “no official agreements on cooperation in the field of fighter jets have been reached.” Sweden is expected to decide on the next steps in its combat aircraft program by September 2027.
Source: POLITICO
