VIENNA — Billed under the motto “strategic awakening of Europe,” France’s Bastille Day celebrations on July 14 will have a distinctly defiant undertone to them.
A point of particular focus will be the aerial display, which is scheduled to include a full 98 fixed-wing aircraft this year, up from 65 in 2025. Front and center - quite literally - will be France’s most important partners on the European continent.
According to the latest plans, the aerial parade will begin with nine French Alphajet jet trainers of the Patrouille de France flanked by two Ukrainian Mirage 2000B fighter jets. Immediately after will be a formation of two French Rafale jets - one of them from the nuclear forces, or Forces Aériennes Stratégiques - flanked by four key European partners’ air forces: German, Greek, British and Swedish fighter jets.
An earlier version of the government’s envisioned lineup indicated that Berlin would send a Eurofighter, Sweden a Gripen, the UK an F-35 and Greece an F-4 to the parade. The most recent version does not specify the aircraft types.
The symbolism is particularly significant for this formation, since all four countries have signed up to some variation of France’s promised forward nuclear deterrence scheme, which Macron launched in theatrical fashion while standing in front of a French nuclear submarine in March.
The initiative promises to extend France’s atomic umbrella over the European continent and has widely been read as a direct consequence of the United States’ disengagement from the old continent. It may also be read as a challenge or at least an alternative to the American domination of European nuclear deterrence.
The U.K., which has its own nuclear weapons, has followed a separate track from the forward deterrence policy, but London, too, has significantly deepened its nuclear cooperation with France. The two countries’ deterrents remain independent but are coordinated under the Northwood Declaration framework signed in 2025.
Notably absent from this year’s flyover is any contingent from the United States. During Trump’s first presidency, in 2017, the Air Force flew in the Thunderbirds’ F-16s, flanked by F-22 Raptors, while Trump and Macron looked on from below.
This year, the focus is wholly European. In addition to the assertive motto, all guest nations will be European. In addition to the fighter jets, there will also be two German C-130 Hercules, as well as one British and one German A-400M Atlas cargo aircraft toward the end of the parade.
An earlier version of the agenda, since taken offline by the French Ministry of Defense, also indicated there would be a Danish F-35, Polish F-16 Fighting Falcon and Spanish F-18 Hornet participating alongside the French Rafale jets near the start of the procession. These were later removed from the program with no further explanation.
European participation in the event in and of itself is nothing new. Last year’s festivities saw fighter jets from Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK fly alongside French jets.
Last year, however, they were flying mostly behind two French Mirage jets, in a formation called “air defense.” This year’s positioning alongside an explicitly nuclear-capable jet in a formation named “Entrée En Premier: Intervention” - which can be roughly translated to “First-Entry Strike Operations” - paints a more forward-positioned picture.
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