France has signed a contract to build a sixth-generation fighter jet - the first phase is estimated at $3.4 billion

The European sixth-generation fighter is one step closer to being available. Although it is still almost two decades away.

Here's What We Know

The French Ministry of Defense has signed a contract with defense companies to develop a fighter jet as part of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program. The first stage is to create a prototype aircraft.

FCAS will come to replace Eurofighter Typhoon and EF-18 Hornet fighters. But it will have to wait until 2040. For comparison, the United States, China and Great Britain (as well as Italy, Japan and Sweden) are preparing to release their sixth generation fighters in the middle of the next decade.

The prototype will be able to take to the air only by the end of this decade, in 2029. Dassault Aviation, Airbus Defense and Space, Indra and Eumet have signed a contract to produce the aircraft. The cost of the first stage of the sixth generation fighter development program is €3.2 billion ($3.4 billion). At the same time the entire project is estimated at €100 billion ($106.05 billion).

Source: The Defense Post
Image: Aviation Week