From this week's 'La Tribune':
Link (FR): https://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-fi ... 77256.htmlSCAF: "not signing an agreement is much better than signing a bad agreement"
Afraid I can't read the entire article as it's behind a very rigorous pay wall. However the abstract and first paragraph odd seem pretty damming (questionable translation aside). It would appear that nationalism and protectionism are once again impeding a 'euro-fighter':
Follows on from another piece on Saturday (FR):The Germans succeeded in sowing discord in the French camp over the SCAF file by wanting to renegotiate certain agreements already accepted by the German side. Between French politicians and industrialists, a dividing line is being created.
The entire French armaments industrial ecosystem is against the new German claims on the SCAF (Air Combat System of the Future), on the MGCS (Main Ground Combat System) and, finally, on the Tiger Mark 3. " It is better not to sign an agreement at all than to sign a bad agreement, ” sums up an industrialist. And above all, all light candles so that the State does not give in to the desire to sign an agreement out of pure romanticism to make history. "The latest discussions at the Franco-German defense and security committee between France and Germany are not going in the right directions ", believes the president of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Senate, Christian Cambon. All eyes are therefore now on Dassault Aviation, considered today as the last bulwark of the German ukases [edicts/decrees] on the SCAF .
Dassault Aviation, the last bulwark
The tricolor aircraft manufacturer, which they say is extremely combative, does not want to give in to German demands and remains impervious to political pressure......
https://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-fi ... 77058.html
I wonder if we could poach the Spanish for Tempest, whilst the other two fight....Germany, the temptation of the heist of the century on the SCAF
Germany is putting maximum pressure on French manufacturers to make concessions on the SCAF program. A game of arm wrestling that will be played out in the next fortnight.
Clearly, Germany is never satisfied. Berlin, which had signed agreements with Paris in October 2019 on the distribution of tasks and leadership on the SCAF (Air Combat System of the Future) program, wants more, always more. "The Germans play on all registers to obtain additional gains on this program" , explains one to La Tribune. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also clearly supported the demands of German industrialists, in particular Airbus, at the end of the Franco-German defense and security council on Friday. For more than a month, the situation has been explosive between Airbus and Dassault Aviation, the two industrial leaders of the program, while the contract for phase 1B of SCAF, which aims to build demonstrators - a budget of more than 6 billion euros - is being negotiated fiercely within a very tight schedule.
"We have reopened the subject of the distribution and the continuation of the work a little bit. (...) It is a project, which is under French leadership, but the German partners must nevertheless be able to be at a level satisfactory vis-à-vis their partners (French, editor's note). And therefore, we must see precisely the questions of intellectual property, task-sharing and sharing ...