America’s F-35 and France’s Rafale are considered to be among the best fighter planes in the world. Both the planes have clashed during a military exercise in Finland.
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France’s Rafale jet has achieved great success against the American F-35. In a multinational military exercise in Finland, Rafale has achieved ‘score a kill’ against the American F-35 stealth fighter. This means successfully defeating or killing the opponent. This incident of Rafale ‘defeating’ the American aircraft can put a real impact on the export of both the jets. This can give Rafale an edge over the F-35 in the global arms market, which will increase Trump’s concern. At the same time, this is good news for India because the Indian Air Force uses France’s Rafale jet.
Finland, the newest member of the NATO alliance, hosted the two-week Trident Atlantic-25 exercise in June this year. The military of Finland, France, the UK and the US participated in this exercise. The US Air Force (USAF) sent F-35A Lightning II and F-15E in the exercise. At the same time, France deployed Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon.
Helsinki: France’s Rafale jet has achieved great success against the American F-35. In a multinational military exercise in Finland, Rafale has achieved ‘score a kill’ against the American F-35 stealth fighter. This means successfully defeating or killing the opponent. This incident of Rafale ‘defeating’ the American aircraft can put a real impact on the export of both the jets. This can give Rafale an edge over the F-35 in the global arms market, which will increase Trump’s concern. At the same time, this is good news for India because the Indian Air Force uses France’s Rafale jet.
Finland, the newest member of the NATO alliance, hosted the two-week Trident Atlantic-25 exercise in June this year. The military of Finland, France, the UK and the US participated in this exercise. The US Air Force (USAF) sent F-35A Lightning II and F-15E in the exercise. At the same time, France deployed Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon.
France shared the video
🇫🇮 Pour la 1ère fois, l’exercice trilatéral #AtlanticTrident s’est tenu en #Finlande, nouveau membre de l’#Otan depuis 2023.
Objectif : renforcer l’interopérabilité entre les forces aériennes 🇺🇸🇬🇧🇫🇷 face aux défis de la haute intensité.
Pour en savoir + : https://t.co/CXeOZCp7Al pic.twitter.com/5eTq97AQ8v— Armée de l’Air et de l’Espace (@Armee_de_lair) August 20, 2025
France has posted a video clip of Trident Atlantic 25 on X. In this, the French Rafale pilot is seen locking an F-35 with its IRST (Infrared Search and Track) within visual range in Basic Fighting Maneuver (BFM) (dogfighting). As the video progresses, the target closeup is shown in the frame, which indicates the jet’s shootdown. Shootdown in training means radar lock and not actually firing a missile at the target.
For the first time, a participant of the Trident Atlantic 25 exercise has revealed this air battle in which Rafale locked the F-35. Many social users of France have shared the video of this incident. The people of France expressed happiness over how the 4.5th generation fighter aircraft Rafale not only dominated the American fifth generation stealth fighter aircraft in combat skills but also ‘killed’ it.
France-US rivalry
This has special significance for France as this video has come at a time when France is presenting Rafale as an alternative to F-35. France is encouraging those who have their eyes on the American aircraft to buy Rafale. The US and France are close NATO allies but their fighter jets are seen as rivals, especially in the export market.
Earlier in November 2009, a Rafale ‘shot down’ the US Air Force’s Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor during a joint exercise in the UAE. This incident happened when US F-22 aircraft came to the UAE for training with the United Arab Emirates Air Force (Mirage 2000), British Royal Air Force (Typhoon) and French Air Force (Rafale).
