France and Germany Tell Their Teams to Keep Working on New Fighter Jet

Apr 24, 2026, 11:02

Introduction

The French president and the German chancellor told their defence ministries to continue work on a new fighter jet project. The project is called FCAS. Some people thought the project was finished. But the leaders talked at a meeting in Cyprus on April 24. They said the project is not dead.

Main Body

The FCAS project started in 2017. It wants to make new fighter jets and drones. These planes will work together with a computer network. They will replace France''s Rafale and Germany''s Eurofighter planes. The cost is very high: hundreds of billions of euros. The project stopped because two companies had a fight. The companies are Dassault Aviation from France and Airbus from Germany and Spain. They fought about who will lead the work on the fighter jet. Some people are trying to help them agree. They asked for ten more days to give their report. Macron said the project is not dead. He and Merz had a good talk. They told the defence ministries to look at many ways to work together. A German government spokeswoman said the work will finish in a few weeks. The Spanish prime minister said Spain wants the project to go forward. He said Spain is not the problem. If the project fails, it will be bad for European defence and for France and Germany''s relationship.

Conclusion

The leaders'' order gives the project more time. But the two companies still do not agree. In the next weeks, the work of the ministries and the helpers will show if the project can continue.

Vocabulary Learning

continue
To keep doing something繼續
Example:Please continue reading.
meeting
When people come together to talk會議
Example:We have a meeting at 3 o'clock.
problem
Something difficult or not good問題
Example:This is a big problem.
project
A plan or piece of work項目
Example:We have a new project at school.
work
To do a job or activity工作
Example:I work every day.

Sentence Learning

The French president and the German chancellor told their defence ministries to continue work on a new fighter jet project.
This sentence uses the past tense 'told' to describe an action. The structure is 'Subject + verb + object + infinitive phrase'.本句使用過去式'told'描述一個動作。結構為'主語+動詞+賓語+不定式短語'。
Some people thought the project was finished.
This sentence uses past tense 'thought' and a past passive 'was finished'. It shows a belief.本句使用過去式'thought'以及被動語態'was finished'，表達一種看法。
The project stopped because two companies had a fight.
This sentence uses 'because' to give a reason. The main clause is in past tense.本句使用'because'來給出原因。主句為過去式。
Macron said the project is not dead.
This is reported speech. The verb 'said' is past, but the reported statement uses present tense 'is' because it is still true.本句為間接引語。動詞'said'為過去式，但引述的陳述使用現在式'is'，因為該事實仍然成立。
If the project fails, it will be bad for European defence.
This is a conditional sentence (first conditional) using 'if' + present tense, and 'will' for future result.本句為條件句（第一條件句），使用'if'加現在式，以及'will'表示未來結果。