Rafales and JF-17s: Tracking Demand, Strategy, and Geopolitical Influence
- Mahek Nirmal Agrawal
- 20 hours ago
- 4 min read
Through May 2025, Dassault Aviation—the French aerospace industry firm behind the Rafale fighter jet—has seen a remarkable spike in demand and stock performance, whereas details about AVIC Chengdu, the Chinese firm that produces the JF-17, are scarce.
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Why in news?
In early 2025, Dassault Aviation, the French maker of the Rafale fighter jet, saw a 66% surge in stock value, spurred by geopolitical tensions in South Asia and new export deals with countries like Indonesia and Serbia. Meanwhile, AVIC Chengdu, the Chinese state-owned manufacturer of the JF-17, has continued to strengthen its strategic partnerships, particularly with Pakistan, as the upgraded Block III variant gains operational prominence. The contrasting responses to these developments—one celebrated by Western markets, the other scrutinized under strategic suspicion—reignite debates over the global arms trade, technological imperialism, and the ethics of militarized development.
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Dassault Aviation (Rafale)
In 2025, Dassault Aviation witnessed a dramatic surge in demand for its Rafale fighter jets, driven primarily by India’s escalating conflict with Pakistan. As tensions flared, India launched "Operation Sindoor," a large-scale military operation that prominently featured the use of Rafale jets. This marked the first significant combat deployment of the French-made aircraft by the Indian Air Force (IAF), showcasing the Rafale's capabilities in a high-stakes regional conflict. The operation underscored India’s strategic reliance on the Rafale platform, not only as a frontline air superiority asset but also as a multi-role aircraft capable of deep strikes and tactical reconnaissance. This demonstration of combat performance elevated global confidence in the aircraft and translated into immediate market consequences for Dassault Aviation.
India’s wartime decisions had a direct and measurable impact on Dassault’s commercial outlook. The Indian government, recognizing the need to strengthen air defence across multiple fronts, accelerated its procurement plans. This included fast-tracking negotiations for the Rafale M variant to bolster the Indian Navy’s operational capacity, as well as increasing its order volume for additional squadrons.
The urgency created by the conflict meant that India prioritized platforms already battle-proven and integrated into its defence infrastructure—making the Rafale the centrepiece of its air power strategy. As a result, Dassault Aviation saw a sharp increase in its stock price, surging 66% in 2025 alone, largely due to market optimism tied to India's demand. Investors interpreted India’s use of the Rafale during wartime as a strong validation of the aircraft’s reliability and versatility, prompting a surge of confidence in Dassault's future revenues.
Strategically, the war gave Dassault a major advantage over competitors. In actual combat, the Rafales outperformed Pakistan’s JF-17 Thunder jets—co-developed with China—not only in terms of air combat but also in strike accuracy, avionics, and survivability. This technical superiority, displayed in a real war scenario, reinforced Dassault’s standing in the global arms market. Furthermore, India's high-profile use of Rafales sent a message to other potential buyers across Asia and Africa: the aircraft was not only technologically advanced but also a trusted and effective wartime asset. For Dassault, the Indian conflict served as both a demonstration and a sales pitch, likely to influence procurement decisions in other regions facing security threats.
In response to India's increased orders, Dassault began scaling up production from two to potentially four jets per month to meet demand.
The company prioritized India as a strategic client, recognizing its importance both as a market and as a regional influencer whose military decisions carry weight in international defence circles. In sum, India’s war situation in 2025 acted as a turning point for Dassault Aviation—transforming it from a premier defence contractor into a globally recognized provider of battle-proven air power. The Rafale’s wartime success did not just enhance India’s defence posture; it significantly reshaped Dassault’s commercial and strategic trajectory in the global arms industry.
AVIC Chengdu (JF-17)
According to a recent report by ‘MINT’ Following PM Modi's message, shares of Chinese defence companies faced a heavy selloff on Tuesday 13th May.
AVIC Chengdu, the Chinese aerospace company responsible for manufacturing the JF-17 fighter jet, is a state-owned enterprise and is not publicly traded, which means there are no available stock performance figures to assess its financial standing in public markets.
However, the demand for the JF-17 has remained steady, particularly among countries seeking cost-effective military aviation solutions. Exports of the JF-17 have been made to nations such as Pakistan, Nigeria, and Myanmar, reflecting its appeal in the Global South. The aircraft's latest iteration—the Block III model—features significant upgrades, including advanced avionics, AESA radar systems, and enhanced weaponry, aiming to boost its competitiveness on the global stage. Strategically, the JF-17 serves as an affordable alternative for countries that require modern fighter capabilities but cannot afford the high costs associated with Western-made aircraft like the Rafale or the F-35.
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Dassault Aviation's Rafale has experienced significant increases in demand and share price, fuelled by strategic operations and overseas orders. For AVIC Chengdu's JF-17, though it still manages to attract customers in certain markets, comprehensive financial information is lacking because of its being owned by the state.
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CONCLUDING REMARKS
The renewed demand for Western-built fighter aircraft such as the Rafale must be seen not just as a geopolitical or an economic phenomenon, but as an indicator of more profound ideological currents—most notably the Western fusion of security, profit, and moral righteousness.
Adapting the critical theory of the Frankfurt School—influential intellectuals such as Herbert Marcuse and Max Horkheimer—one may aver that Western Civilization, with rhetoric of democracy and international peacekeeping, enables technocratic militarism. Warfare technologies, particularly by private security groups such as the Dassault Aviation enterprise, are treated like commodity fetishism: a badge of its prowess, exactingness, efficiency, and deterrent value on record, covering over the neo-imperial motivations of violence upon which it operates.
The Rafale's hype—visible in media, stock surges, and state patronage—rings true to what Martin Heidegger cautioned against in The Question Concerning Technology: a reality in which instrumental rationality reigns supreme, transforming even war into a "calculation," with human lives and sovereignty as variables to be sacrificed.
And while the non-Western world, sometimes described as "unstable" or "strategically significant," is simultaneously both the theatre of war and marketplace for Western weaponry.
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