Germany and France Launch Joint Defense Steering Group on Missiles and Radar and Initiate Nuclear Exercise Cooperation After FCAS Collapse

Analysis
German conventional forces will likely join a French-led nuclear exercise before year-end, formalizing a nuclear-adjacent role for Berlin outside NATO's established sharing arrangement for the first time; Merz's framing as complementary rather than substitutive will shape how allies and Moscow read the move's weight. The new steering group on radar, missile defense and long-range strike signals both governments are routing around FCAS's collapse rather than repairing it, reversing last month's drift toward separate national fighter tracks and shifting the bilateral relationship toward doctrine and capability integration. Sourcing rests on the German government's own transcript corroborated independently by Reuters, France 24 and Deutschland.de, yielding moderate confidence on the exercise timeline absent confirmed operational specifics or unit designation. The push may read as election-timed messaging ahead of Macron's term end rather than a mature deterrence framework, and whether German forces actually deploy or the plan stalls inside the steering group will drive NATO and Moscow recalibrations of European nuclear posture.