“There is always a risk, but nothing has been decided yet,” Armin Papperger told Welt am Sonntag, commenting about the project in which Franco-German tank maker KNDS and French group Thales also hold stakes.
* Papperger said that France was considering drastic cuts to the project’s budget, adding talks included the idea to reduce spending to “less than half” of previous plans.
* So far, the shareholding companies have received just €25 million ($29 million) since the project’s inception, Papperger added.
* Berlin and Paris agreed in 2017 to work on the Franco-German Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) tank to succeed the German Leopard 2 and the French Leclerc, but the project has been hit with delays.
* Papperger’s comments come days after Germany and France scrapped the FCAS joint fighter project while KNDS’s governance structure has also created tensions between the two countries, sources have said.
