The French comments represent the clearest overture to Stockholm since the high-profile failure of the next-generation fighter jet project, known as the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), involving France, Germany, and Spain. The decade-long program faltered due to disagreements between France’s Dassault Aviation and Germany’s Airbus Defence and Space, ultimately collapsing last spring.
The competition between Paris and Berlin to win over Stockholm is a closely watched development in the aerospace sector. Germany had already made contact with Sweden, as previously reported by POLITICO.
Sweden’s defense company Saab produces its own fourth-generation Gripen fighter, although the aircraft’s engine incorporates core technology from the American company GE Aerospace. Engines for France’s Rafale fighter jets are manufactured locally by Safran.
“Dassault and Saab are both aircraft manufacturers with similar approaches and mutual respect. They even had cooperation in the past,” an official stated, while emphasizing that “nothing formal has been agreed” on fighter jet collaboration.
Sweden is expected to make a decision regarding its warplane program by September 2027.
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