Armaments projects in times of geopolitical tension – German renegotiations of the FCAS in the context of the Russian–Ukrainian War

This article conceptualizes weapons technologies as an assemblage of heterogeneous logics to better understand the opaque process of armaments development. This theory-centric perspective draws on critical military studies, science and technology studies, and assemblage theory to position armament projects as a point of entry into military issues and (geo-)security policy. We argue that armament projects embody various logics related to discursive geopolitical risk scenarios, alliance agreements, material-technological advances, combat capabilities, and economic and industrial dynamics. Drawing on archival research and qualitative interviews with military, armament, and defence politics actors, we analyse Europe's most prestigious and costly weapons technological project, the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), from the perspective of German actors. Powerful, sometimes conflicting, discursive, and material logics influence the FCAS assemblage's (non-)becoming. Specifically, it has been de/stabilized by the Russian war in Ukraine. This analysis advances critical military studies by deconstructing taken-for-granted assumptions about arms procurement processes and elucidating the emergence of military geopolitical power.