Spain will join a Franco-German project to build a new
fighter plane to replace the Eurofighter and Rafale, the defence ministry said
on 11 February 2019.
Defence Minister Margarita Robles will sign a letter of
intent with her French and German counterparts on Thursday on the margins of a
NATO meeting in Brussels, a spokesperson said.
The project launched in July 2017 is known as the Future
Combat Air System (FCAS), which in addition to a new combat aircraft also plans
to include drones and cruise missiles.
The new fighter jet will replace the Eurofighter which is
assembled in Germany, Britain, Spain and Italy, and the French Rafale around
2040.
It will compete with the US F-35 or its successor.
A first contract worth €65 million was awarded to
Airbus and Dassault Aviation in February to develop the design of the combat
system.
Spain, where Airbus's military transport planes are assembled,
had sent a letter in December to Paris and Berlin asking to be associated with
the project.
The FCAS has a rival - Britain's Tempest project which has
been awarded to BAE Systems, and which Italy and the Netherlands have also
joined.
In a December statement, Spain's defence ministry said it
was ‘convinced that the two programmes would end up merging, given the huge
investment needed in their development.’