A file photo of a French Air and Space Forces Rafale combat aircraft. The DGA has contracted Dassault to update the aircraft's fire control system to enable its gun to be used for the C-UAS role. (French Armed Forces)
France has modified the software of the Dassault Rafale combat aircraft's internal cannon as part of a wider raft of measures to enhance the armed forces' counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) capabilities.
The Directorate General of Armament (Direction Générale de l'Armement: DGA) told the National Assembly on 15 April 2026 that the Rafale's internal 30 mm Giat DEFA 791B cannon has been adjusted to enable it to be used in the C-UAS role in general, and against Iranian Shahed-type one-way attack (OWA) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in particular.
“We have passed a contract to modify the Rafale's fire control system to be able to engage Shaheds at close range with the gun. This was a capability that was wanted by the Armed Forces, and we [have] rapidly contracted Dassault to modify the fire control,” the head of the DGA, Patrick Pailloux, said when answering questions on the update to France's 2024 - 2030 Military Programming Law (LPM), published by the National Assembly on 8 April 2026.
As noted by Pailloux, parallax issues, whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions, have previously made it difficult to use the gun to engage these types of targets at close ranges.
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