France Goes It Alone on a Sixth-Generation Fighter

Four months after the collapse of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) it had pursued for years with Germany and Spain, France has set out its own path to a sixth-generation fighter. According to Ginés Soriano’s report in Infodefensa on October 14, 2026, Paris will pursue two parallel tracks: accelerating the Rafale F5, or “Super Rafale,” as the backbone of its fighter fleet into the 2040s, and launching a new national fighter program called ACF, for Avion de Combat Futur (Future Combat Aircraft).

Industrial differences between France and Germany ended FCAS in June. Of the three former partners, Infodefensa notes, France is the only one currently able to develop a combat aircraft on its own. The ACF replaces the New Generation Fighter (NGF), which had been the core pillar of FCAS (Infodefensa).

The money is already in the budget request. France’s draft 2027 defense budget, still awaiting parliamentary approval, provides up to €3 billion for the Rafale F5 and €2 billion for the ACF. The plans were disclosed by General Jérôme Bellanger, chief of staff of the French Air and Space Force, and reported by Les Echos. Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin told the National Assembly that France has not lost what it invested in FCAS, since those funds have been redirected to the ACF (Infodefensa).

The schedule is ambitious. Work on a flying prototype is to begin in 2027, with a first flight around 2031–2032, and work on an operational version is expected to start in 2029. Before that, France plans to formally launch Rafale F5 development in December, with the aircraft ready in 2033. The F5 will feature a new engine, advanced sensors, artificial intelligence and a new high-speed nuclear missile, and will serve as the technology base for the ACF. In parallel, the HypAIRion program is maturing manned-unmanned teaming, with a first joint flight of a drone and a Rafale planned for 2028 (Infodefensa).

The Air and Space Force also wants to grow its combat fleet by more than a third, adding 60 aircraft to its current fleet of about 170 by the middle of the next decade (Infodefensa).

The significance lies in what France is choosing to protect. Rather than accept a compromise program shaped by German industrial demands, Paris is betting that sovereign control over airframe, engine, sensors and the nuclear mission is worth the cost of going alone. The Rafale F5 bridges the gap and seeds the technology, which reduces the risk in the new program.

The cost is European fragmentation. Europe now has the British-Italian-Japanese GCAP, a French national program and an open question about what Germany and Spain will do. Three or more competing efforts mean smaller production runs, higher unit costs and more difficult interoperability. France gains control and loses scale, and the European pillar of NATO’s airpower becomes more divided at the moment it is meant to become stronger.

Source: Ginés Soriano, “Francia ya tiene su propio proyecto de caza de sexta generación que prevé comenzar a volar a principios de la próxima década,” Infodefensa, October 14, 2026.