The Future Air Combat System (SCAF), a project led in particular by Paris and Berlin and which seems to have stalled for a year, “will be done,” the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, assured on Thursday in Germany.
This project, which began in 2017 and should enter service in 2040, is “awaited by both Berlin and Paris and this project will be done, we cannot be more direct”, added Sébastien Lecornu.
But the hatching of the program is done with pain: after months of bitter discussions about the division of tasks between the three countries, the governments signed an agreement at the end of August 2021 that provides 3,600 million euros to finance studies, he explained, known as “phase 1B”, with a view to starting construction of a flight demonstrator in 2025, which would take off two years later.
And since then, nothing. The contracts were not signed due to a lack of agreement between the French Dassault Aviation and its main partner Airbus, which represents the interests of Germany and Spain.
The most advanced British storm
The SCAF now appears to be overtaken by a British-led competitor project, the Tempest.
Despite these difficulties, “we have to think about what the combat aviation of the future will be like, since we need it, and we already have to think about regenerating our equipment in this area”, the French minister recalled.
He said he had “agreed” with Christine Lambrecht on “future timetables for the tank” and specified that “proposals” would be made to advance the tank project before the Franco-German Council of Ministers organized at the end of October.
Source: BFM TV
