France opens door to next-generation fighter jet cooperation with Sweden

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PARIS — France is open to cooperating with Sweden on building a next-generation fighter jet, an Elysée official told reporters on Friday.

“We’re both looking for aircraft that are fairly similar, fairly small,” the French official said, speaking ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the Nordic country Monday.

“In response to the question: Are there any avenues for cooperation? Of course, there are many: we have aircraft engine production capacity that Sweden doesn’t have — that’s something we could cooperate on,” they added.

The French comments are the clearest overture made to Stockholm since the high-profile failure of a next-generation fighter jet project between France, Germany and Spain, known as the Future Combat Air System (FCAS). The decade-long program faltered due to disagreements between France’s Dassault Aviation and Germany’s Airbus Defence and Space, and ultimately collapsed last spring.

The competition between Paris and Berlin to attract Stockholm is one of the most closely watched developments in the aerospace sector. POLITICO previously reported that Germany had already reached out to Sweden.

The Nordic country’s defense champion Saab makes its own fourth-generation Gripen fighter — although the warplane’s engine uses core technology from American company GE Aerospace. Engines for France’s Rafale fighter jets are locally made by Safran.

“Dassault builds its own aircraft, and Saab builds its own: two competitors with fairly similar approaches who respect one another. There was cooperation in the past,” the official said, stressing however that “nothing formal has been agreed” on fighter jet cooperation.

Sweden is expected to decide on the next steps for its warplane program by September 2027.