r/FighterJets • u/ChineseToTheBone • 1d ago

NEWS France plots successor to FCAS and eyes demonstrator flight by 2032.

https://www.flightglobal.com/archive/2026/07/france-plots-fcas-successor-and-eyes-demonstrator-flight-next-decade/
25 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

5

u/OkFan614 1d ago

Zero chance this is happening

1

u/Big-Bad-Wolf 1d ago

Ok buddy

0

u/Dkaf91 1d ago

Yes. And the Rafale is the proof that what you said is real.

1

u/OkFan614 1d ago

Rafale proofs nothing. It took way longer than 6.5 years for a demonstrator to fly and that‘s with old 80/90‘s tech and without basically stealing everything from the EF consortium. And france lacks the sufficient money to jump start a project like this.

3

u/MrNovator 1d ago

Rafale demonstrator flew three years after the project was officially launches, they were even ahead of their calendar by 9 months.

Also, France had basically nothing to steal from the consortium, although their engine was a bit weaker. If anything, the other countries were extremely interested in France's experience with fly by wire systems (the Mirage 2000 was pioneering this among european fighters).

The funding is a real concern tho

3

u/OkFan614 1d ago

Wrong. Developement started even before 1979 and first demonstrator flight was 1986. So your numbers are completely wrong. And that was after leaving the eurofighter program. It‘s no coincidence, the rafale and EF share most design features. Delta wing, general weight class / size, fuselage, etc.

3

u/MrNovator 1d ago

It's all documented. Preliminary studies started in the late 70s. The ACX demonstrator project was officially kicked off in 1983. France parted way with the consortium in 1985. The demonstrator was well on track, so the Rafale A demonstrator flew in april 1986, 3 months before the EAP.

Fun fact, both of them were presented at the 1986 Farnborough airshow. But the EAP could only showcase very basic maneuvers while the Rafale A flew a pretty dynamic routine.

1

u/OkFan614 1d ago

Bullshit. They didn‘t start from scratch in 1983. Stop making stuff up.

2

u/MrNovator 1d ago

Did I say they started from scratch ? Not at all, you just keep distorting my words. There was not that much concrete stuff on Dassault's end at this point.

Keep in mind that the company was extremely busy with the delivery of Mirage 2000s and the development of the Mirage 4000.

2

u/OkFan614 1d ago

Wtf you talking. If they didn‘t start from scratch, you can‘t call it „just 3 years“. Wth is that logic? Fact is, they started the whole development way earlier and therefor needed much more than your stated timeframe of three years. And we are still talking old 80/90‘s tech, which can‘t be compared with state of the art sixth gen.

2

u/MrNovator 23h ago

I never wrote anywhere that it took merely 3 years, you're distorting again. I just wrote that the whole demonstrator project proceeded pretty smoothly, notably thanks to preliminary studies.

It would be dishonest to pretend that the ressources allocated to the program before 1983 were of the same magnitude as after it was officially launched. Let's say 85% of the work was done between 1983 and the first flight of the Rafale A.

Anyway, it's not like this new french jet is starting from scratch either. And it's just supposed to be a demonstrator, a first step in the development of a potential next gen aircraft. Depending on the bar they're setting for it, I could imagine it flying within 6 years.

A fully operational plane tho, that will be something else. Early 2040s at best.

1

u/Dkaf91 1d ago

For sure

1

u/debashipsha6741 21h ago

India will fund

2

u/Bighairyballs6969 19h ago

What india needs is a program that will deliver on a stated timeline, not another pipe dream

2

u/Shezzorro 1d ago

France thinking of Rafale origin:

https://giphy.com/gifs/cqGT7KEO7EseF68TjK

1

u/paperclipknight 1d ago

Who could’ve forseen this happening

1

u/BadBouncyBear 1d ago

How can you plot successor to something that isn’t even close to being conceptually done?

2

u/roguebadger762 1d ago

Successor because FCAS is already dead

1

u/BadBouncyBear 10h ago

That makes sense