French Rafale ‘shoots down’ F-35 in simulated dogfight, but there’s more to the story
August 26, 2025
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter is in the news again, this time for reportedly being “shot down” by a French Dassault Rafale. That said, caution should be taken before drawing any conclusions.
Dassault Rafale vs. Lockheed Martin F-35
According to Aviation News, on 20th of August, the French Air and Space Force shared a 44-second video on its official X (formerly Twitter) account showing a Rafale engaging in a close-range dogfight with a US F-35A, US F-15E, and a Finnish F/A/18 Hornet. In the simulation, the Rafale symbolically “downed” the opponents.
This took place during Atlantic Trident 25 between 16-27 June in Finland. The exercises include more than 40 aircraft from France, the US, the UK, and Finland. It is unclear how many Rafales were “shot down” by US F-35s or other allied aircraft during the exercises.
The Rafale is an excellent jet and has superb manoeuvrability. This allows it to perform well in a hypothetical dogfight, and the simulated dogfight took place within visual range.
While the F-35 also performs well, this is not the fight that it is optimised for. The F-35 is designed to see and destroy opponents beyond visual range while enjoying its advantage of being low-observable.
🇫🇮 Pour la 1ère fois, l’exercice trilatéral #AtlanticTrident s’est tenu en #Finlande, nouveau membre de l’#Otan depuis 2023.
— Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace (@Armee_de_lair) August 20, 2025
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
Little more can be said about it without knowing the rules of engagement for this particular exercise. As Aviation News notes, “Symbolic ‘kills’ in simulations hinge on exercise design, rules, and engagement parameters. Analysts caution not to interpret them as real-world superiority.”
The exception that proves the rule
As with many things, it is the exception that proves the rule. According to the Lexington Institute, the F-35 boasts a 20:1 kill ratio in Red Flag aerial wargames run by the US Air Force, the second highest after the dedicated air dominance F-22 Raptor fighter jet.
The high profiles and lethality of the F-35 and F-22 make them the aircraft to beat, and when they are beaten in exercises, it’s reported as news. No aircraft can score a 100% success rate, although, admittedly, the F-15 Eagle has a 100% air-to-air rate in the real world.
Rather than demonstrating the prowess of aircraft like the German Typhoon when it shot down an F-22 with its autocannon in 2012, it highlights just how unusual these outcomes are.
Dogfights are (mostly) a thing of the past
The F-35 is built for a different type of war. Even so, military exercises will still test pilots in a range of hypothetical scenarios, including close-in dogfights.
Aviation News states, “Recent conflicts—like Ukraine, Israel, or the India-Pakistan theatre—demonstrate air warfare is increasingly fought at long range, with fewer dogfights and more reliance on detection, stealth, and networked operations.”
Both India and Pakistan claimed to have downed multiple jets during the conflict, but none ever came within visual range or crossed the border.
So far, Russia is confirmed by the open-source Oryx blog to have lost 163 jets, including 78 frontline fighter jets (excluding Su-24s and Su-25s). These have been mostly lost to ground-based air defence, destroyed on the ground, or lost to accidents.
Similarly, Ukraine is confirmed to have lost 110 jets, including 55 frontline fighter jets. These too have been downed by air defence, destroyed on the ground, or have been lost to accidents.
Air-to-air kills are uncommon, and dogfights are rare, although some did take place, as reported by The War Zone early in the war.
A literal dogfight in the skies over Donbas tonight. Ukrainian SU-27 shooting flares toward a guided missile fired by a Russian fighter jet, not caught in this footage. The few residents remaining in Pokrovsk rushed out to gape at the spectacle and applaud. pic.twitter.com/GmJnO7HghR
— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) August 18, 2022
There will always be specific scenarios that allow inferior jets to win, e.g., in a Top Gun: Maverick-style encounter where 5th-generation aircraft dispense with their sensor, stealth, and range advantages to exchange visual hand signals.
In the real world, this could happen during patrols. For example, if a firefight were to actually break out in a time of peace, as fighter jets are scrambled to intercept other fighter jets.
US and allied fighter jets regularly intercept Russian bombers and fighters over the North Sea, the Baltic, and Alaska.
