France Will Build Its Rafale Successor Alone After FCAS Collapse, Air Chief Tells Parliament

France will develop the successor to the Dassault Rafale as a national program, with the chief of staff of the French Air and Space Force, General Jérôme Bellanger, having told the National Assembly’s defence committee on October 14 that current work will prepare an Avion de Combat du Futur (ACF) conceived in France alone. It replaces the New Generation Fighter at the heart of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which France pursued with Germany and Spain until joint work on the fighter collapsed earlier this year. Bellanger stated that cooperation with other countries would remain possible, but only in frameworks that are not structural to the birth of the aircraft. The position closes the door on suggestions in the French press that Paris could bring in Sweden or India, and marks a return to the model that produced the Rafale after France left the Eurofighter consortium in 1985.

The ACF must be able to carry the ASN4G hypersonic nuclear-capable cruise missile from 2050, which according to Bellanger means it must be ready for conventional missions by 2040, a deadline tied directly to the airborne component of France’s nuclear deterrent. Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin told parliament on October 8 that national work on the critical path of the former New Generation Fighter had been launched in July to secure a capability in the early 2040s, stating that the completed work would be reused and that “we have not lost money.” Budget documents provide for a new combat aircraft demonstrator from 2027, while the Rafale F5 standard expected around 2035 is to introduce several of the ACF’s building blocks, including engine technology, new sensors and the Stratus RS missile.

France and Germany agreed in June to end joint work on the fighter, following years of disputes between Dassault Aviation and Airbus over specifications and industrial control which had left the program stalled since its launch by President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Angela Merkel in July 2017. Bellanger insisted that the work had not been wasted, stating: “The halt of the FCAS program doesn’t mean we’re throwing everything away.” He added that France must continue working with Germany and others on the combat cloud intended to link aircraft, drones and sensors,. Dassault chief executive Éric Trappier has argued that his company, with engine maker Safran and electronics group Thales, could build the fighter for well below €50 billion. Germany, for its part, has begun receiving the first of 35 F-35A fighters ordered in 2022 to replace its Panavia Tornado fleet, a choice other European air forces have weighed against European designs.

The decision leaves France pursuing a sixth generation fighter considerably behind its main rivals. The United States awarded Boeing the contract for the F-47 under its Next Generation Air Dominance program in March 2025, China has flown at least two tailless sixth generation prototypes since December 2024, and the British, Italian and Japanese Global Combat Air Programme is working towards service entry in 2035, five years ahead of the ACF’s conventional deadline. Bellanger described the GCAP design as a different kind of aircraft, “almost a strategic bomber”, and said cooperation within its consortium has required compromises. The Rafale, which continues to draw export orders, first flew as a demonstrator in July 1986 and entered French Air Force squadron service in 2006, a 20-year span against the 13 years that separate the planned 2027 demonstrator from the ACF’s 2040 deadline.