Dassault Produced More Rafale Than Planned, Demand Still Outpaces Production

In 2025, the French company Dassault Aviation exceeded the plan for the production of Rafale fighter jets, producing 26 aircraft instead of the planned 25.

This is stated in the preliminary results of Dassault’s activities for 2025, which were an announcement of the full financial and production report scheduled for early March 2026.

The actual annual production of Rafale fighter jets amounted to 26 units, which confirms the gradual increase in production rates after a sharp increase in demand.

At the same time, despite exceeding the plan, Dassault’s portfolio of orders has not changed and remains at the level of 220 fighters in 2025.

During the year, the company delivered 15 Rafale for export and 11 aircraft for the French Air Force, fully covering its annual production volume.

At the same time, Dassault received a new large order – a contract with India for 26 Rafale M deck-mounted fighters worth $7.41 billion.

This particular Indian contract fully compensated for the number of aircraft delivered to customers in 2025, which kept the order book unchanged.

At the current production rate, the term of the existing contracts is estimated at about 8.5 years, which is slightly less than about 9 years a year earlier.

At the same time, Dassault is implementing a program to expand its production capacity to reach 36 fighters per year in the medium term.

In the future, the company is considering increasing production to 48-60 aircraft annually, given the stable export demand.

As part of this process, in 2025, Dassault opened a new plant for the first time in 50 years, and in India, Tata is launching the production of Rafale fuselage elements at its facilities.

Recently, it was recently reported that Iraq and France are in the final stages of negotiations on the purchase of Rafale fighters.