France confirms Stratus RS as future SEAD weapon for Rafale

A full-scale model of the MBDA Stratus RS cruise missile displayed at DSEI 2025. France will use the missile for the SEAD/DEAD role aboard the Rafale combat aircraft from the early 2030s. (Janes/Tristan Sauer)

France has confirmed that it will use the MBDA Stratus Rapid Strike (RS) missile to equip its Dassault Rafale combat aircraft for the suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD)/destruction of enemy air defences (DEAD) mission.

An update to France's 2024 - 2030 Military Programming Law (LPM), published by the country's National Assembly on 8 April 2026, confirmed that the high-supersonic/high-agility ramjet-powered Stratus RS will form the basis of the future SEAD/DEAD capability for the Rafale.

“The F5 standard [Rafale] will rely on a SEAD and anti-ship missile to counter access-denial strategies,” the updated LPM said, referencing the Stratus that France is now co-developing with the UK, and which was formerly known as Futur Missile Anti-Navire/Futur Missile de Croisière (FMAN/FMC) / Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) respectively. The Stratus RS is one of two variants of the Stratus missile system, with the other being the Stratus Low Observable (LO).

Confirmation of the Stratus RS being used for the Rafale SEAD/DEAD mission came four years after Janes first reported France's intent to field the FMAN/FMC missile aboard the Rafale for this role. Speaking at the IQPC International Fighter Conference (IFC) 2022 in Berlin, Colonel Benjamin Souberbielle, deputy leader of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) Operational Team, French Air and Space Force, said that the Ukraine conflict had demonstrated the importance of taking down enemy air-defence systems, and that the capability was to be integrated onto the Rafale in two phases.