He continues to believe in it, despite the turbulence. Airbus remains “committed” to the Scaf project for the European fighter aircraft of the future, despite tensions with its partner Dassault, which “is free to abandon” the program if it is not “satisfied,” its boss, Guillaume Faury, declared on Wednesday.
Éric Trappier, CEO of Dassault Aviation and representative of France in the Scaf project – while Airbus acts for Germany and Spain – declared at the end of September that he was capable of developing the sixth generation aircraft “completely alone”, which represents a threat to the program that must enter a concrete demonstration phase in 2026.
Dassault Aviation, director of the Scaf project, considers it necessary to review the three-way joint governance of the project before moving it to a new phase, much to the dismay of its partners, for whom the initial agreements must be respected.
According to him, the combat system of the future “is not limited” to the sixth generation fighter, but also includes “the combat cloud, drones (…) sensors and even engines.”
Despite the differences, the French, German and Spanish governments are seeking to reach an agreement before the end of the year, while Scaf aims to replace the Rafale in France and the Eurofighter in Germany and Spain by 2040.
Scaf is under pressure to accelerate its development against the rival project Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), between the British BAE Systems, the Italian Leonardo and the Japanese Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
These three companies have committed to building an advanced fighter aircraft by 2035.
Source: BFM TV
