{"text":[[{"start":8.8,"text":"Germany has informed France that it wants to withdraw from plans to develop a joint fighter jet, dealing a potentially fatal blow to Europe’s largest defence programme at a time when the continent is seeking to re-arm against the Russian threat."}],[{"start":22.65,"text":"After months of efforts to rescue the project, Chancellor Friedrich Merz told President Emmanuel Macron during a meeting in Montenegro on Friday that it would be better to end the partnership on the aircraft, according to German government insiders."}],[{"start":37.849999999999994,"text":"Instead, Merz proposed that the two countries and Spain, which is also a partner, continue working together on the so-called combat cloud — the software architecture designed to connect aircraft, sensors, radars, drones and satellites in real time, the officials added. The cloud is already one of the pillars of the €100bn Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme. "}],[{"start":60.99999999999999,"text":"It remains unclear whether other elements of FCAS, including drones, sensors and engines, can survive without the fighter jet at its core."}],[{"start":69.94999999999999,"text":"The Élysée Palace later confirmed that the development of the joint fighter jet would not be going ahead, but did not specify whether other parts of the programme would continue. "}],[{"start":80.04999999999998,"text":"Macron and Merz “both expressed regret that the industrial partners were unable to reach an agreement on the continuation of the project”, said the French presidency. "}],[{"start":89.24999999999999,"text":"Despite months of public signals that Germany was increasingly reluctant to move ahead, Macron refused to give up on the joint fighter jet project, which he argues is a critical test of Europe’s ability to collaborate on defence. In March, he convinced Merz to try a final attempt at mediation between the companies and the countries’ respective defence ministries."}],[{"start":110.54999999999998,"text":"But those efforts ultimately failed to overcome a deep feud between France’s Dassault Aviation and Airbus’s German defence division, the companies tasked with building the jet. The groups have clashed over work share, governance and intellectual property, with relations deteriorating to the point where executives on both sides argued in favour of a split."}],[{"start":132.7,"text":"Merz’s decision underscores Germany’s growing confidence as it embarks on a historic military build-up worth more than €750bn by 2030. "}],[{"start":143.04999999999998,"text":"For Berlin, the problem was not only Dassault’s reluctance to share technologies with Airbus. German defence officials had also come to view the aircraft — designed in part around France’s nuclear deterrent requirements — as increasingly ill-suited to the future needs of the Bundeswehr. Merz hinted at those concerns in a podcast interview in February."}],[{"start":163.04999999999998,"text":"Macron believed that given France and Germany were the main buyers of the next-generation jet, they should pressure the companies to settle their differences. But neither Paris nor Berlin felt the other was prepared or able to do so. "}],[{"start":176.39999999999998,"text":"People involved in the project in Berlin argued that it was ultimately Macron’s responsibility to ensure Dassault complied with previously agreed work-share arrangements — something, they felt, the French president was reticent to do."}],[{"start":189.79999999999998,"text":"Paris on Monday appeared to throw the blame back on Berlin. “The German authorities considered that it was not possible to exert further pressure on the companies concerned,” said the Élysée. "}],[{"start":200.45,"text":"Macron repeatedly pleaded to preserve the project. “It’s hard for me to understand how we will build new common solutions if we destroy the few ones that we have,” the French president said at the Munich Security Conference in February."}],[{"start":213.85,"text":"FCAS was launched by Macron and then German chancellor Angela Merkel in 2017 as a flagship European defence project intended to replace France’s Rafale and Germany’s Eurofighter fleets from about 2040 with the next-generation jet linked to drones and satellites. Spain joined the programme in 2019."}],[{"start":235.85,"text":"German officials insisted that Berlin’s proposal to continue developing the combat cloud remained strategically important. Designed to use AI to process and distribute vast battlefield data, the system is being developed by Airbus, France’s Thales and Spain’s Indra. “In that sense, this is the nervous system,” one German official said."}],[{"start":262.8,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780979903_9530.mp3"}