(Paris) The French Ministry of the Army announced that France, Germany and Spain will sign this evening, Monday in Paris, an intergovernmental agreement providing for the necessary funding for studies that will lead to a flight demonstration of the future air combat system (SCAF).
The three countries announced on May 17 that they had agreed to the system, which will include a combat aircraft accompanied by drones.
The agreement, which will be initialed on Monday evening by French Minister Florence Parly, her German counterpart Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Spain’s Minister of State for Defense Esperanza Castelero Lamazares, is a realization of this.
“This intergovernmental agreement is a prerequisite for an agreement between states and manufacturers to sign contracts to carry out work. Negotiations with manufacturers are ongoing, and we expect to conclude them in the coming weeks,” the Minister’s office told us. According to this source, “we do not identify a difficult point, but there are always discussions”, especially about the division of work between the various actors.
The agreement stipulates that the three countries will finance in equal shares a maximum total amount of 3 billion euros (4.5 billion Canadian dollars) excluding taxes (3.6 billion euros inclusive of all taxes) for detailed studies, for example “Phase 1B,” according to the Foundation. It should be held over a period of 32 to 40 months and lead to the identification of the protester. It is also related to the work of technological maturity.
First flight in 2027
The demonstrator, a kind of prototype, aims to demonstrate the reliability of the selected technologies.
The agreement also provides for a “second stage” of the model, which should fly in 2027.
For this stage, “we are planning today a maximum budget of 4.2 billion euros excluding taxes,” or 5.04 billion euros excluding taxes, to be divided among the three countries, according to this source.
“This is a very important milestone that we have passed,” we added to the company: €250 million in total has been allocated so far to the program since its launch in 2017.
The junta is the main European cooperation programme, and aims to replace German and Spanish Rafale and Eurofighter combat aircraft by 2040.
More than just a New Generation Fighter (NGF) aircraft, it’s a “systems system” that orbits the aircraft with accompanying drones, all connected, via a “combat cloud,” with other military assets involved in an operation.
The three Air Force chiefs of staff are also to sign on Monday the document outlining the Common Operational Requirements (CORD) that the military council must meet.
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