Dassault threatens to pull plug on combat jet amid Airbus spat

Bloomberg

Dassault Aviation SA threatened to pull out of developing a future European fighter jet with Airbus SE over a protracted dispute between the two defense suppliers over leadership of the project.
Talks between the French company and the German and Spanish arms of Airbus have reached an impasse and an agreement on moving to the next phase “still hasn’t been signed,” Dassault Chief Executive Officer Eric Trappier said at a press conference outside Paris.
The Germans “have to trust this new team, including the leader of the team, which is Dassault,” he said. “If this isn’t the case, it’s better not to go.”
The combat plane project, known as the New Generation Fighter, was first mooted by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and has been paralysed by months of infighting between the leading industry suppliers. Trappier’s comments indicate their divide made be widening.
“We decided at the beginning to join the program provided we got a certain number of commitments from Airbus,” he said. “The first one was the leadership of Dassault in the architecture of the future fighter, the second is that the flight control system is for us,” Trappier said.
“These were the two red lines,” the executive said.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said last month there are “complex discussions” going on about “the work share, the lead share, the responsibilities of both companies.”
“It’s not uncommon to be in those kind of discussions before signature of a contract of that size,” he told reporters. “Is failure to reach an agreement an option? That’s not the way we look at it.” Airbus didn’t immediately comment.