Dassault moves sensitive equipment as Gironde wildfire idles Rafale plant

Dassault Aviation has transferred sensitive equipment away from two of its facilities in the Gironde region as the wildfire burning northwest of Bordeaux forced the manufacturer to stop work at Mérignac, where Rafale fighters and Falcon business jets are assembled and flight tested. 

The company told AFP that the moves were carried out in close coordination with France’s Directorate General of Armament (DGA) and prefectural authorities, shifting a number of “sensitive items of equipment” from its Martignas-sur-Jalle plant and its Cestas logistics center to the Mérignac site and to Air Base 106, which adjoins Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport. 

Employees at Mérignac and Martignas have been told to stay home where they have not already been evacuated, Dassault said, with only the teams required for the equipment transfers and for site protection reporting for work. The company presented the measure as a way to ease the firefighting effort. The Mérignac site was at a standstill on July 27, 2026. 

A production chain interrupted 

Dassault Falcon 7X assembly line in Mérignac, France (Credit: MarinaLystseva / Wikimedia Commons)

Mérignac is the final link in a chain that begins with component and subassembly work at Seclin, and at the Cergy plant Dassault opened in September 2025, while Martignas-sur-Jalle specializes in aerostructures. Any pause at Mérignac stops deliveries rather than merely slowing feeder production. 

The interruption lands during an output push. Dassault is targeting 28 Rafale deliveries in 2026 after handing over 26 in 2025, a tempo the company has acknowledged remains below its three-a-month ambition because of supply chain constraints. Neither Dassault nor the DGA has indicated how long the shutdown is expected to last. 

Fire reaches the Bordeaux industrial belt 

The fire started on July 22, 2026, near Saumos, north of the Arcachon basin. The Gironde préfecture put the burned area at 42,000 hectares in its situation report on the evening of July 27, 2026, with 240 homes destroyed, 88 firefighters injured, and close to 220,000 people preventively evacuated across 23 communes.  

Je vous ai préparé une petite vidéo montrant l’évolution des feux de forêt dans le bassin d’Arcachon / Cap Ferret.Vous y verrez aussi les rotations des Canadairs et hélicos et, en rose, l’A400M qui débarque à la fin. Mise à jour toutes les 3 h ici. #FireWatchArcachon pic.twitter.com/UTYpBAJLTJ— Valatini (@valatini) July 26, 2026

Other aerospace employers in the area have taken comparable measures. ArianeGroup evacuated its Gironde sites, including Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, where solid propellant is loaded for the M51 submarine-launched ballistic missile.  

Airbus Atlantic evacuated its Salaunes composites plant on July 24, 2026, at the request of the authorities, with the fire front reported within four kilometers. Salaunes produces A220 fuselage panels and A350 structural components. 

Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport, which shares its runways with Air Base 106, said on July 26, 2026, that it remained fully operational, with priority given to departing flights and hotels in its immediate vicinity evacuated by prefectural order.  

France committed an Airbus A400M fitted with an experimental retardant kit to the fire on July 25, 2026, the type’s first operational firefighting mission. The post Dassault moves sensitive equipment as Gironde wildfire idles Rafale plant appeared first on AeroTime.

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