2023 Annual Report

Industrial architect

We manage the entire life cycle of aircraft programs for our customers and partners. We add value through our ability to manage, coordinate and guarantee the ultimate efficacy of the systems delivered by the projects we lead.

Guarantor of the system’s underlying fundamentals and its development, we are responsible for assessing the technological challenges as well as the scope and sharing of tasks between partners.

Design architect

Our approach to product design is focused on harnessing data. Deployed as part of combat bubbles, our future weapons systems need to enable humans to maintain their position at the helm of the decision-making process, while ensuring operational performance in the midst of high-intensity operations and in situations involving contested network conditions. This will be achieved by means of collaborative combat, automated systems based partly on AI, as well as adaptive and resilient system architectures.

Rafale road map

The Rafale continues to surge ahead thanks to a combination of technological advances and user feedback. Its F3-R standard, launched in 2014, entered service in December 2019. The F4 standard, with its focus on connectivity and enhanced payloads, will be validated in 2027. The launch of the planned F5 standard, designed for collaborative combat, is currently underway.

New Falcons

The Falcon 6X, launched in 2018, received joint certification by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in August 2023.

The Falcon 10X was unveiled in May 2021. Delivery of the first aircraft will begin in 2027, following revision of the timetable.

Special-mission Falcons

The Falcon 10X is one of the two aircraft selected by the French defense procurement agency (DGA) in December 2022 for inclusion in a system design project aimed at developing a future maritime patrol aircraft to replace the ATL2.

The contract for the maritime surveillance Falcon Albatros (AVSIMAR) was officially announced in December 2020.

The Archange airborne strategic intelligence program was launched in December 2019. It will be based on the Falcon 8X jet, equipped with electronic warfare systems designed by Thales.

Cooperation on demonstrators

The nEUROn is the first stealth combat drone (UCAV) to date to be developed as part of a joint European program. Dassault Aviation is the lead partner in this program and the Rafale F5’s combat drone will be developed on the basis of this demonstrator.

The Future Combat Air System (FCAS) Phase 1B contract for R&T and overall flying demonstrator design commenced in March 2023. As prime contractor and architect of the New Generation Fighter NGF (Pillar 1), Dassault Aviation has brought together the manufacturing teams from all three partner countries at its facility in Saint-Cloud.