France Commits €12B for Rafale (Standard 5) and UAV NEURON Development in the Next Decade, Adding €1.3B for FCAS by 2026.

France's Defense Program for the next four years (2023-2026) plans to allocate 1.3 billion euros for the Future Air Combat System (FCAS). This investment provides clarity regarding France's continuity in this project, where it collaborates with Germany and Spain as equal partners.

The FCAS, a 6th-generation fighter that will replace Germany and Spain's Eurofighters, as well as France's Rafales, will require a joint investment of 8 billion euros by 2029. Of this amount, France commits 1.3 billion euros until 2026, with an additional 300 million euros budgeted for subsequent stages of the program, totaling 1.65 billion euros.

The majority of these funds (specifically 1 billion euros) will be allocated to Phase 1B of the program, involving three years of work with a total cost of 3 billion euros, to be shared equally among the three partners. This phase will lay the foundation for the second stage of the program, lasting three years, and will conclude in 2029 with the first tests of the next-generation combat aircraft, the central piece of the program, as well as other systems such as remote operators and the combat cloud. Altogether, this represents an anticipated expenditure of 8 billion euros by 2029, to be distributed equally among the three countries.

Additional Investments in the Rafale and UAV Neuron

France's new defense plan for the period 2024 to 2030 includes funding for a new Rafale (Standard 5) and a successor to the Neuron unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). This has raised questions about the need for collaboration programs like the FCAS, as France appears capable of independent development, as was the case with the Eurofighter program, from which Paris withdrew to develop the Rafale.

In summary, the French Armed Forces plan to allocate 6.4 billion euros to the Rafale within the 2023-2026 defense program law, with an additional 5.36 billion euros after that period, bringing the total to approximately 12 billion euros for this aircraft over the next decade.

This breakdown reveals that 2.27 billion euros will be directed towards the development and production of the F4 variant of the Rafale. The new budget for the Armed Forces, corresponding to 2024, includes over 200 million euros for the F5 version, capable of operating with unmanned aircraft, aligning with the ongoing development of the UAV Neuron by Dassault Aviation, also the manufacturer of the Rafale. For progress in the Neuron, the new budget anticipates an expenditure of 128 million euros in 2024. The majority of the planned expenses for the Rafale are earmarked for the acquisition of additional aircraft, totaling 8.5 billion euros. In total, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces plans to acquire 55 additional Rafales, aiming to have around 225 units by 2035.

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