France to go it alone on next-gen combat aircraft after FCAS collapse

PARIS — France will develop a next-generation combat aircraft domestically as a successor to the Rafale, after a joint project with Germany and Spain for a future combat air system collapsed earlier this year, Air and Space Force Chief of Staff Jérôme Bellanger said.

The country now conceives the future fighter, dubbed Avion de Combat du Futur or ACF, as a national project, with a target of flying conventional missions in 2040, Bellanger told the National Assembly’s defense committee in a hearing here on Wednesday.

“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. France remains open to possible cooperation with other countries, “but within different frameworks and which won’t be structural to the birth of this aircraft.”

France and Germany agreed to scrap the FCAS project in June, after years of wrangling about specifications and industrial control between Dassault Aviation and Airbus. That’s left both countries without a clear successor for their existing fleets of Rafale and Eurofighter jets, respectively, though Germany has started receiving the first F-35 jets ordered in 2022 to replace the Panavia Tornado.

Dassault Aviation CEO Éric Trappier has said his company and France have all the know-how and skills to develop a next-generation fighter jet, together with engine partner Safran and defense-electronics firm Thales, and he would be able to do so “well below” a budget of €50 billion (US$56 billion).

All the years working on FCAS “haven’t been wasted,” with progress in areas including the aircraft, drones, stealth, connectivity and combat cloud, Bellanger said. Work had been split up in several so-called pillars that also included a new engine, with Dassault and Airbus working on the next-gen fighter pillar at the heart of the system.

“The halt of the FCAS program doesn’t mean we’re throwing everything away,” Bellanger said. “Our teams, the industrial teams have been working on the NGF, stealth, the cloud, and so on. All of that will allow us to continue at this stage on a national basis, while also focusing on this very important aspect of interoperability.”

France must “absolutely continue” working with Germany and other countries on the combat cloud, as interoperability between European crewed platforms will be vital, “to avoid thinking of a war fought side by side, but rather one fought together,” Bellanger said.

Bellanger said that even if FCAS wasn’t a success from an industrial standpoint, he has a very good working relationship with his German counterpart, with both commanders on the same page regarding their vision for future air combat, and both advocating for common operational requirements for the cloud component.

The Rafale successor will need to carry the ASN4G hypersonic nuclear cruise missile in 2050, and working back from that date means the aircraft will need to be flying in 2040 for conventional missions, Bellanger said. Moving ahead with a national program will allow France to meet the deadlines essential for nuclear deterrence by 2040, he said.

France will need to have a Rafale F5 standard in 2035 that incorporates the first components of the future combat aircraft, related to the engine, the sensors and the Stratus RS missile to neutralize enemy air defenses, according to Bellanger.

Bellanger said the British-Italian-Japanese GCAP project to develop a sixth-generation aircraft is working towards “a different kind of aircraft, it’s almost a strategic bomber.” He said “it’s not all roses” within the GCAP consortium, with cooperation inevitably requiring compromises.

The Air Force chief said France will receive its first long-range one-way munitions in the summer of 2027 with MBDA’s Deluge drone, which will form the basis for the country’s first squadron of bombing and reconnaissance drones. The force is also experimenting with interceptor drones with an eye on creating a dedicated drone-interceptor squadron.

The Air and Space Force further plans to create a very-high altitude squadron to deploy stratospheric balloons, which can be used for communication relays or as a platform for intelligence sensors, as well as other systems with long-endurance capabilities such as tethered balloons.

The air force envisages future strikes into enemy territory that will involve a first wave of a large number of disposable drones to weaken enemy air defenses, which will be the role of the new squadron, according to Bellanger. The disposable drones will be capable of kinetic operations, but also non-kinetic operations including jamming, saturation, or deception, the air force chief said.

A second wave of reusable but expendable drones would then create a breach to allow for deep strikes using crewed and uncrewed systems, he said.

“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.”

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——法国空军和太空部队参谋长杰罗姆·贝朗热表示，法国将自主研发下一代战斗机，作为“阵风”战斗机的继任者。此前，法国与德国和西班牙合作研发的未来作战空中系统项目于今年早些时候宣告失败。

贝朗热周三在国民议会国防委员会的听证会上表示，该国现在将未来战斗机（名为“未来战斗机”或“ACF”）视为一个国家项目，目标是在 2040 年执行常规任务。

贝朗热表示：“我们现在正着手开展工作，为未来战斗机（ACF）的诞生奠定基础，使其成为一项国家级项目。”法国仍然对与其他国家开展合作持开放态度，“但合作将在不同的框架内进行，并且不会对这款飞机的研发起到结构性作用。”

在达索航空和空客之间就技术规格和工业控制权问题争论多年后，法国和德国于6月同意终止未来空中作战系统（FCAS）项目。这使得两国目前分别没有明确的战机来取代其现有的“阵风”和“台风”战斗机机队。不过，德国已开始接收2022年订购的首批F-35战机，以取代帕纳维亚“旋风”战斗机。

达索航空首席执行官埃里克·特拉皮耶表示，他的公司和法国拥有开发下一代战斗机所需的全部知识和技能，他将与发动机合作伙伴赛峰集团和国防电子公司泰雷兹集团合作，并能够在500亿欧元（560亿美元）的预算“远低于”这一预算内完成这项工作。

贝朗格表示，多年来在FCAS系统上的努力“没有白费”，该系统在飞机、无人机、隐身技术、互联互通和作战云等领域都取得了进展。研发工作被分为几个所谓的支柱，其中包括一种新型发动机，达索和空客正在共同研发该系统核心的下一代战斗机支柱。

贝朗格表示：“FCAS项目的暂停并不意味着我们要放弃一切。我们的团队和工业团队一直在研究下一代飞行器（NGF）、隐身技术、云计算等等。所有这些工作都将使我们能够在国家层面继续推进现阶段的工作，同时也能让我们专注于互操作性这一非常重要的方面。”

贝朗热表示，法国必须“绝对继续”与德国和其他国家在作战云方面开展合作，因为欧洲有人驾驶平台之间的互操作性至关重要，“以避免并肩作战，而是共同作战”。

贝朗格表示，即使从工业角度来看，FCAS 并不成功，但他与德国同行保持着非常好的工作关系，两位指挥官对未来空战的愿景一致，并且都主张对云组件提出共同的作战要求。

贝朗热表示，阵风战机的后继机型需要在2050年具备携带ASN4G高超音速核巡航导弹的能力，从这个时间点倒推，意味着该战机需要在2040年就能执行常规作战任务。他指出，推进国家自主研发计划将使法国能够在2040年前满足核威慑所需的各项要求。

贝朗格表示，法国需要在 2035 年拥有符合“阵风”F5 标准的战斗机，该战斗机将包含未来战斗机的首批部件，包括发动机、传感器和用于摧毁敌方防空系统的 Stratus RS 导弹。

贝朗格表示，英意日三国合作的第六代战机联合研发项目（GCAP）正在研发“一种不同类型的战机，它几乎可以算作战略轰炸机”。他还指出，GCAP联盟内部“并非一帆风顺”，合作不可避免地需要做出妥协。

法国空军司令表示，法国将于2027年夏季接收首批远程单程弹药，即MBDA公司生产的“洪水”（Deluge）无人机，这将为法国首个轰炸侦察无人机中队奠定基础。此外，法国空军还在试验拦截无人机，目标是组建一支专门的无人机拦截中队。

空军和太空部队还计划组建一支超高空飞行中队，部署平流层气球，这些气球可用于通信中继或作为情报传感器的平台，以及其他具有长航时能力的系统，例如系留气球。

据贝朗格称，空军设想未来对敌方领土的打击行动将首先部署大量一次性无人机，以削弱敌方防空系统，而这正是新成立的无人机中队的任务。空军司令表示，这些一次性无人机不仅能够执行动能作战任务，还能执行包括干扰、饱和攻击或欺骗在内的非动能作战任务。

他表示，第二波可重复使用但一次性使用的无人机将制造缺口，从而可以使用有人和无人系统进行纵深打击。

“要想在敌人的地盘上打击他们，我们现在必须考虑用低成本的轰炸无人机和电子战能力（例如进攻性干扰）来压倒他们的防空系统。”

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。