As the French newspaper “La Tribune” reports, France will have to finance the development of the Rafale F5 variant alone. Talks about joint financing with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have therefore failed.
France was hoping that the UAE would contribute around 3.5 billion euros to the further development of the F5 variant of the Dassault Rafale would contribute.
In return, the UAE expected access to sensitive technologies and technology transfer. But Paris does not want to share this. The existing defense agreement between France and the UAE was apparently not enough for Abu Dhabi.
As “La Tribune” writes, French President Emmanuel Macron had to listen to “extensive criticism from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, who was outraged by the French proposals in this matter”.
France is one of the main suppliers of military equipment to the Emirates. This includes 80 Rafale fighter jets worth around 16 billion euros, but also corvettes and other modern defense systems.
Is the Rafale F5 coming later?
The French Ministry of Defense must now finance the development of the Rafale F5 alone as part of the updated military program law. It had already been said in advance that the UAE’s involvement would make the difference “between a super Rafale and a merely good Rafale”.
Nevertheless, France is currently making efforts within the framework of the existing defense agreement to provide support in defending against Iranian drones and missiles and to restore trust. However, it is currently unclear whether this will be enough for a new round of negotiations.
The stakes are high for France. The usual practice when financial resources are insufficient would be to spread the development costs over a longer period of time. The result would be that the F5 standard would come later – and possibly also be introduced in smaller “F5.x” steps.
At the same time, the French-German-Spanish FCAS project is also on the verge of failure.
India was also recently denied access to highly sensitive Rafale fighter jet technologies. As reported by Defense Security Asia, New Delhi has been denied access to the source codes of the Rafale fighter jet. This means that India is not in a position to modify electronic warfare systems independently.
The rejection relates in particular to the Thales RBE2 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar of the Rafale, the Modular Data Processing Unit (MDPU) and the Spectra suite for electromagnetic warfare. India will therefore continue to rely on French approvals and support for changes to radar algorithms, threat libraries and the integration of additional weapon systems into the mission computers.
In 2016, India acquired a total of 36 Rafale fighter jets worth 7.87 billion euros. In February 2026, New Delhi approved the purchase of purchase of a further 114 aircraft worth around 34 billion euros.
The F5 plans in detail
The latest standard for the Dassault Rafale is the F4.1, which includes the Scorpion helmet visor from Thales, improved sensors, new network capabilities – including the Syracuse IV satellite communication system – new armament such as the AASM 1000 Hammer and MBDA MICA NG and new forecasting and diagnostic software for predictive maintenance.
Plans for the F5 include teaming with a combat drone based on the Neuron platform, offensive means of electronic warfare for early detection and disruption of enemy ground-to-air defense systems and modern stand-off weapons. This also includes a nuclear-capable fourth-generation scramjet missileAir-Sol Nucléaire de 4ème Génération (ASN4G). This will be complemented by further advances in sensor technology and networking – technologies that will also facilitate the transition to the 6th generation of combat aircraft.
However, it is unclear how Paris intends to finance the ambitious and increasingly cost-intensive armaments programs on its own.
French defense budget reaches its limits without partnerships
The current military program law “Loi de programmation militaire” (LPM) 2024-2030 includes a record budget of 413.3 billion euros for the French armed forces. French armed forces – an increase of 40 percent compared to the previous LPM (2019-2025). A bill to increase the budget by a further 36 billion euros will soon be submitted to the French National Assembly as part of the revision of the military program law.
Nevertheless, France is coming under increasing pressure. With an expected defense budget of 57.1 billion euros in 2026, Paris is well behind Germany (82.69 billion euros plus 25.51 billion euros from the special fund) and the UK with around 91 billion euros.
Here for more news about Dassault Aviation and here to further news about the French armed forces.
