Dassault Aviation
Dassault Aviation is France's combat aircraft manufacturer, founded by Marcel Bloch in 1929, renamed Dassault after 1945, and controlled by the family holding Groupe Dassault from its Saint-Cloud headquarters. It has supplied every French fighter generation since the Ouragan, ordered in 1949, through the Mirage line to the Rafale, which first flew in 1986 and entered service in 2004.
The export decade that began with Egypt's order in February 2015 turned a program France sustained alone for 20 years into Europe's largest fighter backlog: 533 firm Rafale orders by the end of 2025, 220 of them undelivered, from France and nine export customers. Dassault is the only manufacturer building frontline fighters and business jets on the same engineering base, with final assembly in Merignac.
Frequently asked questions
The Rafale, with 533 firm orders from France and nine export customers and a production backlog of 220 aircraft at the end of 2025.
Yes. Although production ended in 2007 after 601 aircraft, the Mirage 2000 remains in service with air forces including France, India, the UAE and, since 2025, Ukraine.
Groupe Dassault, the family holding, controls the company, which also builds the Falcon business jet line.