The Chief of Staff of the Air and Space Force, Jérôme Bellanger, expressed concern on Wednesday 20 November to AFP regarding the upcoming shortage of fighter jets in the French fleet.
No fewer than three Rafale jets per month to be produced as a minimum to catch up on the backlog! During a meeting organised by the Defence Journalists« Association on Wednesday 20 November, Chief of Staff Jérôme Bellanger made no secret of his anxiety: " We are heading towards a glaring shortage of weaponry if we don't course-correct »That's putting it mildly when it comes to shooting. Undoubtedly, the reason is crystal clear: this situation stems from the military aid we have provided to Ukraine over the past few months.
Indeed, last June, Emmanuel Macron announced the suspension of our fighter jet deliveries in favour of deliveries to Ukraine. You reap what you sow...
On the sacred sacrificial altar hitherto fully owned by the government and its predecessors, the state of stocks is inevitably worrying for the sector, which is more rational: « Naturally, this disrupts the fighter aviation format somewhat. The Ministry has understood this very well and we have looked at how we could make up for this transfer », Jérôme Bellanger then pointed out.
Dassault Aviation is constrained by its own economic imperatives
In response, the Ministry of the Armed Forces, not without some pressure from the highly serious DGA (Editor's note: Directorate General for Armaments), proposed accelerating production of the French flagship, but this risks being difficult to implement, given the state of the industrial supply and subcontracting chain. The Dassault Aviation group is certainly a French aircraft manufacturer that has long been recognised worldwide and also boasts a well-stocked order book. And France is not always a priority, as its business model dictates. For example, last year, 63% of the aircraft produced by the manufacturer went abroad.
So asking the company today to change its sales strategy, produce more without necessarily earning more, and compromise the quality of its aircraft seems to stem from a misunderstanding of this particular industry, perfectly characterising the defence policy of recent years. Because the question of financing is also at the centre of discussions: accelerating production means at the same time increasing production costs, particularly in terms of highly qualified labour. To give you an idea, the unit cost price of a Rafale is estimated at a minimum of 80 million euros. And it must be remembered that the manufacturing subcontracting chain of an aircraft is complex, as Dassault does not manufacture many electronic components or even the necessary alloy metals «in-house».
And Dassault Aviation must also honour its various commitments to foreign countries, quite simply to avoid offending its various commercial partners and thus creating new diplomatic crises, which are already keeping the Quai d'Orsay busy enough!
Different options, much like the famous «whatever it takes»
Many hurdles still need to be cleared by the French armed forces before they can benefit from massive rearmament, politics permitting. However, the Ministry of the Armed Forces is trying to put forward a few more or less feasible ideas, such as simply «temporarily» increasing the production capacity of the Dassault group. In other words, hiring more staff. But hire who? For how long and at what cost?
In the realm of realpolitik, the State is also putting «the possibility of prioritising France» on the negotiating table, once again temporarily, in order to avoid shortages. Then there is the «possibility of using Rafale jets that have already been produced, by simplifying the startup procedure». Understand who will, or at least, who can.
Making such highly strategic and balanced decisions while avoiding offending Dassault Aviation's clients on the one hand, and guaranteeing faster deliveries on the other...
Therein lies the equation for this very discreet hour, as the freshly installed Barnier government is already wavering.
French 
English 
Chinese 
Arabic