Mediation efforts to save the flagship German-French Future Combat Air System (FCAS) — a planned €100 billion next-generation air combat programme involving a joint fighter jet, drones, and new communications systems — have failed, according to German business daily Handelsblatt. The two mediators appointed by Berlin and Paris, former tank manufacturer KMW chief Frank Haun and ex-French defence executive Laurent Collet-Billon, reportedly reached no agreement in what was described as a final attempt to resolve a prolonged leadership dispute between aerospace firms Dassault and Airbus. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), who first publicly questioned the project in February, is expected to decide on its future by Tuesday ahead of a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at an informal EU summit in Cyprus later next week, with senior German defence legislators already calling for a pivot to two separate national fighter programmes.