WILL IT EVER get off the ground? It was never going to be easy for France and Germany, two big countries with wildly differing political and strategic cultures, to collaborate on one of the most complex weapons projects in European history. The Future Combat Air System (fcas)—comprising a “sixth-generation” fighter jet, a swarm of autonomous drones and a communications “combat cloud”—has repeatedly stumbled since its conception in 2017. But now, as a deadline looms to move fcas to its second phase, in which a prototype of the New Generation Fighter (ngf) jet must be built, many fear it may fall apart entirely. “We are not making any progress with this project,” sighed Friedrich Merz, Germany’s chancellor, recently. “Things cannot continue as they are.”