DUBAI- France's Dassault Aviation CEO said on Monday a contract to build a Franco-German fighter demonstrator should be awarded before the end of January 2022.
He said the first demonstrator flight of the project remains on schedule for 2026, and that Britain could still join the project after the first demonstrator flight.
Dassault and Airbus won a 65 million euro ($72 million)contract in January to develop the concept for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) but await a new contract to build demonstrators for interlinked fighters, drones and an "air combat cloud" by 2026.
($1 = 0.9074 euros)
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, Writing by Tuqa Khalid; Editing by Louise Heavens) ((Tuqa.Khalid@thomsonreuters.com; +971521047568;))
