France launches ACF to replace cancelled NGF future combat aircraft

A model of the recently aborted NGF future fighter showcased on the Dassault stand of the Paris Airshow 2025. France is now building on the work done over the previous decade to develop its own national ACF solution, albeit with European cooperation. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)

France is to develop a sixth-generation combat aircraft under the national Avion de Combat Futur (ACF) programme, replacing the tri-lateral New Generation Fighter (NGF) that was cancelled earlier in 2026.

Speaking to French law makers in the Senate, the Chief of Staff of the French Air and Space Force, General Jérôme Bellanger, said that the ACF will be a national effort to replace the NGF that France was developing with Germany and Spain before cancellation in June 2026, but that international cooperation with those and other countries will be “essential”.

“Regarding the inception of this ACF, this ‘Future Combat Aircraft', the approach is national, though it allows for potential cooperation with other countries within frameworks that are not structurally foundational to the aircraft's development,” Gen Bellanger said at the hearing on 14 October 2026, “There are two key points here. First, it is essential that we continue working with Germany and other nations on a combat cloud. The second point, which is vital, concerns interoperability among our European crewed platforms. We must move beyond the idea of fighting merely side-by-side, and towards fighting truly together. The combat cloud and the resulting interoperability of our platforms is the linchpin for this. This is how we are conceiving the project at a national level,” he added.