Stuck for more than a year, the future combat aircraft project, the Scaf, is moving forward. An industrial agreement has been reached between Dassault and Airbus and should allow the construction of a demonstrator within three years.
On 9 November, on the flight deck of the helicopter carrier Diksmuide, on the occasion of the presentation of the strategic review by Emmanuel Macron, the boss of Dassault Aviation, Éric Trappier was all smiles. “ Now that Airbus has said “yes”there is no more reason for me not to sign “, he had declared to the journalists who questioned him on the Scaf.
This agreement is the culmination of a standoff that lasted more than a year between Airbus, which represents German interests, and Dassault, the French manufacturer of the Rafale. The stumbling block was the flight controls of the device of the future. Dassault, thanks to the Rafale, has recognized know-how. But the French didn’t hear share patents with Airbus Germany. Faced with the impasse, the Frenchman even mentioned a plan B.
A demonstrator for 2025
Now, the agreement is there, providing 3.6 billion euros of detailed studies to launch in 2025 the construction of a demonstrator in flight. The future sixth-generation combat aircraft, a true combination of an interconnected system within a combat cloud, will replace the Rafale by 2040. It will also be an alternative to the American F35 fighter, but above all this program symbolizes the first steps of a European defense industry. A real object of sovereignty, which President Macron calls for.
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