{"id":32625,"date":"2020-08-17T08:37:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T08:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/08\/17\/europes-next-gen-fighter-club-faces-a-dilemma-who-else-can-join\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:41:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:41:29","slug":"europes-next-gen-fighter-club-faces-a-dilemma-who-else-can-join","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/global\/europe\/2020\/08\/17\/europes-next-gen-fighter-club-faces-a-dilemma-who-else-can-join\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s next-gen fighter club faces a dilemma: Who else can join?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COLOGNE, Germany \u2014 With mainland Europe and the United Kingdom pursuing their own sixth-generation fighter programs, differing views have started to emerge about how many nations should partake in the action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At issue is whether the British Tempest and the German-French-Spanish Future Combat Air System can coexist in the long run without cannibalizing the continent\u2019s defense budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more, while leaders in the U.K. have openly advertised their appetite to pick up partner countries for Tempest, Paris and Berlin are divided about admitting additional members, besides Spain, for fear of slowing down their effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to see the Defense News Top 100 list.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

German defense officials early this year told Bundestag lawmakers they consider it risky to keep the circle of participants too small because team Tempest could go around snagging up contributors, though that concern has yet to bear out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Dirk Hoke, the CEO of Airbus Defence and Space, the issue comes down to the budget. His company is the co-lead for the FCAS program along with France\u2019s Dassault Aviation. Notably, the French have the lead for the Next-Generation Fighter, envisioned as the central aircraft for the larger program of supporting drones and command-and-control equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEurope can\u2019t afford two new systems,\u201d Hoke said in a virtual panel discussion organized by a German defense industry lobbying association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is especially the case, he argued, because a competition between the U.K. and members of the European Union would reinforce the perception that Britain\u2019s divorce from the bloc has weakened the intra-continental defense alliance \u2014 a notion that leaders on both sides of the Channel have been trying to dispel.<\/p>\n\n\n\t