France's proposed 2027 defense budget assigns €3 billion in commitment authority to the Rafale F5 upgrade, while official documents leave the United Arab Emirates' contribution unspecified after renewed defense agreements.
The budget table separately lists €627,876,367 in payment credits for 2027. The €3 billion is a budget authorization, not a published estimate of the program's total cost.
The government proposal targets a public deficit of 5% of gross domestic product in 2027, after forecasting 5.4% in 2026. It projects public debt at 119.3% of GDP in 2026 and interest costs of €91.2 billion in 2027, up from €79.2 billion in 2026. The government submitted the budget bill to the National Assembly on Oct. 1; it remains under parliamentary review.
On Oct. 20, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and French President Emmanuel Macron witnessed the exchange of the Strategic Defence Partnership Framework and an agreement on implementing arrangements for defense industry cooperation, the Emirates News Agency reported. The UAE announcement did not name the Rafale. Macron said the next day that the visit had produced an intergovernmental agreement and related accords for a common strategy on the Rafale's fifth generation. The public statements do not provide the agreements' full terms.
France's arms procurement agency, the Direction générale de l'armement (DGA), expects work on the F5 to enter its realization phase by the end of 2026; qualification is projected around 2033. The modernization work covers connectivity, radar, electronic warfare and the engine. The DGA says more than 400 companies take part in the wider Rafale program, which supports more than 7,000 direct and indirect jobs in France.
Reuters cited two people with knowledge of the discussions who said industrial companies were expected to address the program's costs and technical plans. Reuters also reported that the UAE might pursue technology transfers or local production, terms not confirmed in official statements.
La Tribune reported in April that the program was expected to cost about €5 billion and that the UAE had been prepared to contribute €3.5 billion. Those figures are media reports and do not appear in the released official documents.
