Dassault Aviation’s planned F5-standard Rafale fighter will have more powerful engines, improved survivability and data links, and will be accompanied by an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) weighing more than 10t, according to the French airframer’s chief executive.
Significantly, the stealthy UCAV will be more double the size of the Neuron, a previous unmanned demonstrator developed by the company and partners last decade.
Eric Trappier, speaking to FlightGlobal in Paris on 5 March, said he was hopeful of receiving a development contract for the F5 work from the French government in the coming months, building towards service entry in 2030.
Driven by the aircraft’s nuclear deterrence mission, the F5 will be designed to carry the new ASN4G munition – a scramjet-powered hypersonic missile being developed by MBDA.
Although the exact requirements for the F5 enhancement will be driven by the French armed forces, Trappier says “connectivity will be important for the nuclear mission”.
Beyond that, other systems will also need to be improved, he says, such as the radar, other sensors and countermeasures suite.
“The first goal of a fighter is to survive so it can fire its weapon,” he says.
Announcing the initial F5 study work last October, French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu said the Rafale would be “supported by a stealth combat drone”.
“We believe the addition of a UCAV with the Rafale could also improve the performance of the mission with both air-to-ground and air-to-air capabilities,” says Trappier.
Dassault in the 2010s developed and flew its Neuron UCAV demonstrator, leading a multinational team on the project.
Trappier says the new UCAV will be considerably larger than the Neuron, which was “a small drone” with a maximum take-off weight of around 5-6t.
“We will go to more than double that in order to carry weapons and get a certain range. It’s going to be a big one.”
He declines to say whether it will be a single- or twin-engined aircraft but says it will have stealth characteristics.
In parallel, Safran Aircraft Engines has embarked on a programme to increase the thrust of the Rafale’s M88 powerplants.
Known as project T-Rex, improvements to the engine’s hot section will allow thrust to be rasied beyond the current 11,240lb (50kN) maximum without increasing the size of the engine.
Trappier will not be drawn on the exact thrust required but says it is “a little bit more than we had in mind before”.
Retaining the same size engine will also mean there is no need to change the basic design of the Rafale.
“It is possible to increase a little bit the size of the Rafale but it is not the way we are looking at [F5] today,” Trappier says.
Meanwhile, Dassault aims to deliver 25 of the multirole fighters this year – a four-unit increase over its 2024 performance – 13 of which will be handed over to the French air force.
Production of major parts for the jet internally and at certain subcontractors is running at what Trappier calls “pace 3” – sufficient to support output of three aircraft per month – but this has yet to feed through to its Merignac final assembly line.
“In Merignac we need some time to ramp-up our production,” he says.
Pace 3 would see 33 of the jets built in a year – the factory closes for the month every August – and a further increase to pace 4 is also contemplated.
Even higher rates could also be achieved if supported by demand, he notes.
Trappier remains confident India will soon contract for 26 carrier-capable Rafale Ms for its navy, with its air force also contemplating a follow-on order to complement the service’s existing 36-strong fleet.
Sizeable commitments from New Delhi are likely to require the localisation of production to conform with its Make in India programme and would see Dassault “open a new assembly line in India so we can absorb the load”, says Trappier.
France is also considering another batch of up to 30 aircraft for delivery in the 2030s.
Dassault’s backlog for the Rafale comprises 56 for France and 164 for export customers, including Indonesia, Serbia and the United Arab Emirates. The first aircraft for the UAE was recently rolled out in Merignac.
