German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen and her French counterpart Florence Parly will sign on April 27, on the occasion of the latter's visit to Berlin, a letter of intent for the design of an "Air Naval Warfare System". In all likelihood, it will be a question of designing a replacement for the Atlantic 2 used by the French Navy, and the Lockheed Orion P3C, used by the German Navy, two aircraft from the 80s.
Last month, France and Germany announced that they were joining the NATO project to purchase a joint maritime patrol aircraft. However, Lockheed's P8 Poseidon started with a clear advantage in this program, being already used by several NATO navies. It is therefore possible that this announcement will lead to the withdrawal of the two countries from the NATO program, in order to develop an entirely European maritime patrol solution.
We can also put this announcement in parallel with that made this Friday about the future Franco-German fighter. Indeed, this would make it possible to designate a different prime contractor for each program, and not harm either of the two French (Dassault Aviation) and German (Airbus DS) manufacturers. As it is very likely that the maritime patrol aircraft will be based on an Airbus commercial aircraft, we can imagine that Airbus DS will be prime contractor for the maritime patrol program (and the MALE drone program), while Dassault would oversee the NG fighter program.
[…] the risks posed to all the MGCS, FCAS, EuroMALE, CIFS and MAWS programs by industrial sharing on a global scale, as implemented today, and which, […]