German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Friday that it will take time to decide on the development of a new fighter aircraft, after the scrapping of a joint European scheme to manufacture a next-generation jet.
"We have to look very closely at who can do what with whom and how quickly and at what cost and with what involvement of German industry," Pistorius said on Friday at the international aerospace show ILA in Berlin.
A decision was therefore still some way off, he said.
On Thursday, eight companies declared their interest in helping to develop a new fighter aircraft. They are Airbus' defence division, MTU, Hensoldt, MBDA, Autoflug, Diehl Defence, Liebherr and Rohde and Schwarz.
They are jointly appearing under the name "Team Gen 6." The planned new fighter aircraft is referred to in the industry as a sixth-generation fighter jet.
The industry initiative followed the scrapping of the Franco-German fighter aircraft project FCAS. Airbus' defence division and French company Dassault were involved in the project. However, the two companies were not able to resolve their differences over the project.
Senior Airbus executive Michael Schoellhorn said at the ILA that he was interested in a solution closely aligned with military needs that did not suffer from too much complexity.
He gave the mid-2030s to 2040 as the timeframe for development. "Unlike last time, we should bring political, military and industrial interests into line," the Airbus manager said.
