Airbus Tests Robots; FCAS Stalls
- Airbus has been testing UBTech humanoid robots in its factories while mediation over the FCAS sixth‑gen fighter stalled. ( ) - The factory trials specifically used UBTech robots, and the FCAS mediation failure involved talks with Dassault. ( ) - Together these items highlight manufacturing automation progress and political friction shaping Europe's future combat aircraft programs. ( )
Airbus is testing Chinese-made humanoid robots on its factory floor just as mediation collapsed in its dispute with Dassault over Europe’s next fighter jet. (reuters.com) UBTech said on January 21 that Airbus had bought its Walker S2 industrial humanoid and signed a deal to explore robot use in aerospace manufacturing. Airbus said the work was still at an early concept-testing stage. (reuters.com) UBTech markets the Walker S2 as a factory robot for repetitive jobs, and Airbus has said more broadly that robotics can take over simpler production tasks while workers handle more complex work. Airbus has been expanding automation as it tries to raise aircraft output. (ubtrobot.com) (airbus.com) The other half of the story is FCAS, the Future Combat Air System being built by France, Germany and Spain. Airbus says the program is meant to link a crewed New Generation Fighter with uncrewed “remote carriers” and a combat cloud that shares data across the force. (airbus.com) That program has been stuck for years over who controls the fighter aircraft work. Reuters reported on April 18 that mediators from France and Germany failed to settle the latest Airbus-Dassault dispute, leaving political leaders to decide whether to step in. (reuters.com) The industrial fight centers on Dassault, which leads the next-generation fighter pillar for France, and Airbus, which represents Germany and Spain. Defense News reported in March that Dassault chief executive Eric Trappier blamed Airbus Germany and said the project was “on life support.” (defensenews.com) FCAS already won a €3.2 billion Phase 1B demonstrator contract in December 2022 for Dassault, Airbus, Indra and EUMET. Dassault said that work was expected to run for about three and a half years, with the broader system targeted for service around 2040. (dassault-aviation.com) (airbus.com) Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury said in February that FCAS was at “a difficult junction” and even floated a two-fighter option to keep the effort alive. That would mark a sharp turn from the original plan for one shared combat aircraft. (defensenews.com) So Airbus is moving on two very different clocks at once: near-term factory automation with off-the-shelf humanoids, and a far slower political negotiation over a sixth-generation warplane. In April 2026, the robots are in testing; the fighter program is still waiting on governments. (reuters.com 1) (reuters.com 2)
