French considering going alone due to recent issues, it might also be a warning to Germany.
Source:
http://www.opex360.com/2022/11/26/a...3-envisage-une-alternative-francaise-au-scaf/
In the Senate, an amendment to the draft 2023 budget envisages a French "alternative" to the SCAF
Bis Repetita! For the second time in a week, an agreement between Dassault Aviation and Airbus on the New Generation Fighter [NGF], the first pillar of the Future Air Combat System [SCAF], has been prematurely announced.
As a reminder, Dassault Aviation, which has been designated prime contractor, is negotiating with Airbus' German and Spanish subsidiaries to share the workload for Phase 1B of this program. However, with its status as the "best athlete" being contested by Airbus Defence & Space in certain areas [notably flight controls], the French manufacturer does not intend to give anything up. This includes issues related to its intellectual property.
This tug-of-war has been going on for nearly two years now... And some are getting impatient, to the point of moving faster than the music, as the German government did on November 18, when it welcomed an industrial agreement... that did not exist. This is a "pseudo political announcement that has been made," squeaked Éric Trappier, CEO of Dassault Aviation, on RTL radio three days later.
Then, during a trip to Berlin on November 25, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne reported an agreement between the two industrialists concerned... while she was holding a press conference with Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor. "It's not done," said a Dassault Aviation spokesman, contacted by Reuters.
In any case, as long as this agreement is not signed, Phase 1B of the SCAF, whose financing was only given lip service by the Bundestag in June 2021, cannot be launched... No doubt it will end up being launched... The sixtieth anniversary of the Franco-German Élysée Treaty could be the occasion to mark the occasion, with a lot of communication. However, if each next step in this program is to give rise to such complicated negotiations, the NGF will not take off any time soon... Especially since it will remain at the mercy of German deputies, who are quick to criticize the "French stranglehold" on this project.
That said, some French parliamentarians are beginning to be annoyed by the German attitude in this matter. In the French National Assembly, some have gone so far as to suggest a "plan B" in the event of the failure of this cooperation with Germany [not to mention Spain]. Plan B, which Eric Trappier regularly mentions...
But the Senate obviously intends to go much further. Indeed, as part of the examination of the 2023 Finance Bill [PLF], its Finance Committee has adopted an amendment submitted by Dominique de Legge, proposing to finance studies "intended to establish the feasibility of a new generation fighter project financed by France outside of any cooperation".
For this purpose, the text proposes to allocate 10 million euros in commitment and payment credits to program 144 "Defence Environment and Prospects". But as Senator Cédric Perrin explained during the work of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, this amendment aims to remind the government that it must "give guarantees on the preservation of a certain number of France's strategic interests. And he insists: "The needs of our armed forces must be taken into account - deterrence and navalization - as well as the protection of intellectual property. Export rules must be clarified.
More specifically, noting the delay already accumulated by the SCAF and the difficulties in reaching agreement between the three countries involved in this programme, the amendment considers it necessary to explore the feasibility of a national "plan B" "in order to anticipate a possible impasse in negotiations", but without calling into question "plan A" for the time being. And all this while pointing out that "every day of additional delay in negotiations is a day lost for the preparation of the French armed forces for the air war of the future.
Furthermore, with regard to negotiations with Germany and Spain, the amendment insists that France "must remain firm on certain essential points of national interest, such as the ability to provide equipment and weapons systems that meet the degree of autonomy in action" that it desires. Or again, such as "maintaining an industry that is independent of foreign regulations over the long term, particularly in terms of export controls".
In doing so, the Senate is responding to the Bundestag, which recently passed a resolution demanding that the German government "take better account of the interests of industry" in both the SCAF and the MGCS [future battle tank] projects.
