Munich, June 14 — Avia.pro. The largest rift has been recorded in the European defense industry, where years of attempts to create a unified combat aircraft of the future have ended in the virtual collapse of the original consortium.

According to defense publication The War Zone, Airbus's German subsidiary has launched an emergency attempt to restart the European sixth-generation fighter jet development program. The new, large-scale initiative, officially dubbed Team Gen 6, is now built exclusively around a close partnership between Germany and Spain, completely eliminating the previous French partnership.

The previous flagship program, FCAS (Future Combat Air System), was terminated due to a profound industrial-political conflict. Official Paris categorically insisted on the leading role of Dassault Aviation and designed the fighter to meet purely national requirements—the ability to operate from aircraft carriers and employ French nuclear weapons. Berlin and Madrid, meanwhile, did not require these costly features, leading to a deadlock in the distribution of financial roles and technical oversight.

Key German and Spanish defense giants have already been officially involved in the new Team Gen 6 program, including Diehl Defence, Hensoldt, MBDA Germany, MTU Aero Engines, Indra, ITP Aero, and Sener. Experts say the main risk of the new initiative is its economic viability: the project does not yet have guaranteed government funding, and the combined need for 250-300 aircraft in Germany and Spain is too small to cover the colossal costs of developing a sixth-generation platform on their own.