Ruptly
"German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius admitted reporters had 'hit a sore spot' when asking about the scrapped fighter jet project with France and Spain, speaking in Berlin on Tuesday. "Now the project has finally failed, what will happen next with the French, and what will become of a German jet?" he was asked. He responded: "The end of FCAS was no longer surprising. It had been foreshadowed for quite some time." "I want to make it clear once again, you hit a sore spot. It pains me a lot. Every Franco-German project that is not successful is something I do not like," he told them. "Both Friedrich Merz and I have spoken with Dassault and Airbus intensively, bilaterally, and multilaterally. Macron has tried on his part. The critical hurdles could not be overcome." According to the latest media reports, plans for the landmark Future Combat Air Systems (FCAS) - the 100 bln-euro German-Franco-Spanish fighter jet programme - were torn up by Chancellor Friedrich Merz and France's Emmanuel Macron, following talks in Montenegro at last week's Western Balkans summit. The project was set to developed a sixth-gen aircraft and integrated network of armed and unarmed drones systems working alongside the plane. The plans have seen huge delays and rows between the weapons firms involved - European aerospace group Airbus on behalf of Germany and Spain, and France’s Dassault Aviation - over patents, intellectual property, tech specs, tech-sharing and even who was leading the project. Macron first launched the initiative in 2017, alongside former German leader Angela Merkel."
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