Dassault Aviation is hopeful that a new order from India for 114 Rafale combat aircraft can be wrapped up this year, as it looks to further extend the backlog of the fourth-generation jet.
As of 31 December 2025, the French airframer held 220 Rafale orders: 175 to export customers and 45 for France, but India in February announced that it had selected the type for its Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft requirement.
Asked during a 4 March full-year financial results briefing when he expected the order to be finalised, Dassault chief executive Eric Trappier said: “We want to make sure that contract is signed this year. Will it be? We’ll see next year.”
As part of New Delhi’s Make in India initiative, Dassault needs to ensure 50% of the value is delivered domestically.
It has already signed an agreement with Tata Advanced Systems to establish a second source of Rafale fuselage sections in the country – the first time parts for the combat jet have been produced outside France – and will ultimately establish a local final assembly line too.
As a forerunner, it has set up a joint-venture, Dassault-Reliance Aerostructures, to manufacture Falcon 2000 business jets, a step Trappier calls “a form of practice for the Make in India initiative”.
Meanwhile, the airframer continues to await a signal from the French government on its plans for a future Rafale order. Paris signed a Tranche 5 agreement for 42 jets, but it is as yet unclear when the Tranche 6 deal will close.
Trappier says questions around timing should be addressed to the French DGA military procurement agency but notes that production rates for France are currently “pretty low”, driven by “budget issues”.
In 2025, Dassault delivered 11 Rafales to its domestic customer, a rate that will likely be maintained in the near-term: “For the two or three years to come we are talking about small volumes,” he says.
“It’s not that we don’t want to step up the production rate, but if you want to step it up, you have to come up with the cash.”
Overall, Dassault is guiding to deliver 28 Rafales this year, a modest increase on the 26 shipped in 2025.
At present, the airframer is continuing to ramp its output towards what it terms ‘pace 4’ – four aircraft per month or 44 per year.
While it is already producing at that rate in its upstream facilities, such “upscaling is gradual” and has yet to filter through to its Merignac final assembly line near Bordeaux.
“Everything has got to come into place at the right time to be able to push to four aircraft per month at Merignac,” says Trappier.
In fact, ‘pace 4’ will not be fully realised for another three years, with ‘pace 5’ achievable by 2030 if necessary.
Besides the Rafale, Dassault is also developing for the French government several special mission aircraft based on its business jets.
This includes the Falcon 2000LXS-derived Albatros for maritime surveillance and response.
France’s lead example made its maiden flight on 24 January and will be delivered this year, says Trappier. Additionally, Paris in late 2025 added five more orders for the platform, taking its total commitment to 12 units.
Overall, defence sales accounted for €4.6 billion ($5.3 billion) of Dassault’s total €7.4 billion sales in 2025, up on respective figures of €3.9 billion and €6.2 billion a year earlier.
Of its total backlog of €46.6 billion, €33.8 billion is from defence exports and €8.1 billion for France.
