TL;DR
France and Germany committed to developing a sovereign alternative to Palantir’s military software. French Arcadia is the model. Both countries have already abandoned Palantir for ChapsVision.
France and Germany got engaged on Friday develop a European alternative to Palantir’s military artificial intelligence software. A joint statement signed following talks between Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz committed the two countries to examine “a European sovereign digital backbone” covering data-centric security, artificial intelligence and cloud solutions. France’s Arcadia, an artificial intelligence-powered command and control platform, was named as a starting point, along with “unspecified”Comparable German solutions.“
The statement comes after both countries took steps to remove Palantir from their intelligence services. France’s DGSI announced in June that it would replace Palantir with ArgonOS from ChapsVision.six months after renewing the American firm’s contract. The German BfV cast ChapsVision in the same role. The Bundeswehr has completely excluded Palantir from its defense cloud procurement. A senior NATO commander recently told Politico that there was no real European alternative to Palantir’s Maven software, which the alliance uses for battlefield data processing. Friday’s statement is Paris and Berlin’s response: build one.
The joint statement also covers missiles, tanks and space. France, Germany and the United Kingdom will examine cooperation on long-range weapons with a range of 2,500 kilometers, leveraging the capabilities of the Ariane Group. The Franco-German MGCS tank program, intended to replace the Leopard 2 and Leclerc, will launch a research program on autonomous driving, sensors and battlefield networks. The problematic FCAS next-generation fighter jet was notably absent from the statement. Instead, the two countries agreed to create a “European Collaborative Combat Standard”so that fighter jets and drones from different nations can communicate in the field.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp called Germany’s refusal to consider his company “conversations about witchcraft“ in a Bild interview last month, arguing that the software was tested on all serious battlefields. That argument has not moved Berlin. The sovereignty question is not whether Palantir’s technology works – it clearly works – but whether Europe’s most sensitive military infrastructure should depend on an American company at a time when transatlantic relations cannot be taken for granted. France and Germany have now raised that issue in a joint statement. The hardest part is whether they will be able to turn it into working software.
