Bellanger stated that the new aircraft, dubbed Avion de Combat du Futur (ACF), is now conceived as a national project with a target of flying conventional missions in 2040. “We’re now moving on to work that will prefigure and enable the birth of this ACF, this future combat aircraft as a national program,” Bellanger said. He emphasized that while France remains open to cooperation with other countries, such partnerships will occur within different frameworks and will not be structural to the aircraft’s development.
The shift to a national program is driven by strict deadlines for nuclear deterrence. Bellanger noted that the ACF must be operational by 2040 to allow for the integration of the ASN4G hypersonic nuclear cruise missile by 2050. He added that France must have the Rafale F5 standard in service by 2035, incorporating initial components of the ACF, including new engines, sensors, and the Stratus RS missile for neutralizing enemy air defenses. Dassault Aviation CEO Éric Trappier has claimed the company, along with partners Safran and Thales, possesses the necessary expertise to develop the jet for less than €50 billion, arguing that progress made during the FCAS phase in areas like stealth and combat cloud technology has not been wasted.
Despite the industrial split, Bellanger stressed the importance of maintaining interoperability with Germany and other European nations. “France must ‘absolutely continue’ working with Germany and other countries on the combat cloud,” he said, noting that common operational requirements are vital to ensure allied forces can fight together rather than merely side by side. He described his working relationship with his German counterpart as positive, with both commanders aligned on the vision for future air combat.
Bellanger commented on the British-Italian-Japanese Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), describing it as developing “a different kind of aircraft, it’s almost a strategic bomber.” He acknowledged that cooperation within the GCAP consortium requires compromises. Meanwhile, the French Air and Space Force is advancing its unmanned capabilities, planning to receive its first long-range one-way munitions, MBDA’s Deluge drone, in the summer of 2027. These drones will form the basis for a new squadron dedicated to bombing and reconnaissance.
The force is also experimenting with interceptor drones and plans to create a very-high altitude squadron for deploying stratospheric balloons used for communication relays and intelligence sensors. Bellanger outlined a future strike doctrine involving a first wave of low-cost, disposable drones to overwhelm enemy air defenses through kinetic and non-kinetic means, such as jamming and deception. A second wave of reusable but expendable drones would then create a breach for deep strikes by crewed and uncrewed systems. “To strike the enemy on their own turf, we now have to think of overwhelming air defenses with low-cost bombing drones and electronic warfare capabilities such as offensive jamming,” Bellanger said.
