New Delhi: The UAE has walked out of funding the French Rafale F5 project, leaving Paris to go it alone in upgrading the backbone of its airforce, and further impacting sales of the fighter aircraft to prospective buyers.
The French weekly financial newspaper, La Tribune, reported Thursday that Emiratis, who were keen to funding almost EUR 3.5 billion of the EUR 5 billion project, walked away from the deal following a disastrous meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the UAE, earlier this year.
The French were not keen in sharing classified technologies, especially involving optronics–technologies involved in detecting and controlling light–leaving the Emiratis unhappy of receiving almost nothing for their investment.
“After several months of deadlock in 2025 regarding the financing of the Rafale F5 fighter jet, Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Abu Dhabi was intended to clarify the two countries’ expectations for the development of this cutting-edge technology-enhanced programme. This was a point of great interest to the Emiratis, who are avid adopters of new technologies,” the La Tribune report said, as translated from French.
“Ultimately, the French president had to listen to the lengthy criticisms of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, who was furious about the French proposals on this matter. The meeting between the two heads of state went very badly, as France and the UAE were clearly not on the same page.”
Abu Dhabi wanted to be as “closely involved” in the project as possible in return for its financing, while the French were not as open to the idea, reports La Tribune. As a result, the French government will now have to plan on how to spread the payments for the upgraded programme of the Dassault Rafale F5 over the next few years, potentially delaying the project.
Securing Emirati funding would have allowed the Macron government to reduce the spread of its budget, allowing its other programmes in the pipeline to proceed forward. For Macron, the loss of the funding deal is set to further impact the defence budget of France, at a time when the government has been failing to rein in public expenditure.
Multiple French governments have struggled to pass a budget since Macron called for a snap election in 2024 that led to a hung parliament. Prime Ministers Michel Barnier and Fancois Bayrou both lost their jobs over their failures to pass the budget. However, current Premier Sebastien Lecornu was able to pass a budget in February 2026, that would see cuts to public expenditure, to allow a fiscal deficit of roughly 5 percent for the year, while increasing the overall defence budget.
The Rafale F5 is seen as the precursor to the joint French-German-Spanish production of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which is expected to enter into service around 2040. The Rafale will continue to operate until the FCAS is ready.
India is keen to purchase 114 Rafales, with Dassault Aviation asked to submit a bid by the end of the month, as reported by ThePrint. According to reports, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces had publicly stated that India is keen to purchase around 24 of the F5 variants, apart from 90 F4s as a part of the overall deal.
However, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces reportedly pulled down the exact figures later from its analysis on the disinformation emanating from China and Pakistan over the Rafale, especially post Operation Sindoor.
(Edited by Tony Rai)