Germany Already Had a Plan B: Airbus and Eight Defense Firms Submit Fighter Jet Proposal as Berlin Weighs Post-FCAS Path (opens in new tab)

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius revealed on Tuesday that Berlin had been holding secret talks with Airbus for months about a successor to the canceled FCAS fighter program, as an eight-company consortium led by Airbus formally submitted a replacement proposal — suggesting Germany's exit from the Franco-German project was a managed withdrawal, not a surprise.