On Tuesday evening, somewhere over France and the Mediterranean, French two-seat Rafale B jets flew a mock nuclear strike with something they had never had before: British fighters guarding their flanks. The escorts were Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4s of the Royal Air Force, and their presence was the latest break in a habit that is more than sixty years old.

France announced the exercise on Thursday 23 October. Codenamed RUMMY, it was the first time the RAF has taken part in an exercise run by the Forces aériennes stratégiques (FAS), the command that flies France’s airborne nuclear deterrent. For almost all of its history since the 1960s, the FAS has done this job alone; only this summer did it first exercise with German Eurofighters.

Paris and London were careful to say what this is and what it is not. Both countries keep fully independent nuclear forces. But they now rehearse together how those forces would be protected on the way to a target, and they want Moscow to notice.

How the RUMMY sortie worked

The RAF sent a small Typhoon detachment to Saint-Dizier in north-eastern France, home of the Rafale squadrons that carry the ASMP-A nuclear stand-off missile for the French Air and Space Force. From there, the mixed package launched on a simulated long-range nuclear strike sortie over France and the Mediterranean.

The Typhoons flew defensive counter-air: a protective screen around the strike jets, free to roam, investigate radar contacts and, in wartime, shoot them down. That lets the nuclear-armed Rafales stay on their route instead of breaking off to fight. In French-only exercises, single-seat Rafale Cs normally play that escort role.

The strike aircraft are the two-seat Rafale B, which puts a weapon systems officer in the back seat to run sensors, weapons and the authentication of a launch order while the pilot flies. Photos of armed FAS Rafales show the standard loadout: the ASMP-A on the centreline pylon, external fuel tanks, and MICA air-to-air missiles for self-defence.

The British jets themselves carry no nuclear role. As Forces News pointed out, the Typhoon cannot carry nuclear weapons, unlike the Tornado it replaced. Released photos show at least one RAF Typhoon fitted only with short-range ASRAAM missiles and fuel tanks, according to the French nuclear analyst Etienne Marcuz.

A first for France’s strategic air forces

French armed forces minister Catherine Vautrin made the announcement herself, and framed it as a matter of coordination rather than shared control.

The British side was just as keen to be heard. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting called it a landmark step in UK-France defence co-operation and posted about the sortie on X.

RUMMY follows the card-game naming that runs through French nuclear exercises, from the regular POKER drill to smaller qualification events. The German precedent this summer involved two FAS Rafale Bs and two German Eurofighters, which Afterburner covered at the time. Britain is the first nuclear-armed partner to join in.

From the Northwood Declaration to the cockpit

The political groundwork was laid in July 2025, when Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and President Emmanuel Macron signed the Northwood Declaration. It stated for the first time that the two countries coordinate their independent nuclear deterrents, and opened the door to operational cooperation.

What that cooperation could look like was never obvious, because the two arsenals are built differently. Britain’s deterrent is carried only at sea, by Royal Navy ballistic missile submarines armed with US-built Trident II D5 missiles and British warheads. France keeps both submarines and an airborne leg built around the Rafale and the ASMP-A.

An airborne exercise is the most visible place where the two can actually work side by side. Forces News puts France’s stockpile at around 290 submarine- and air-launched weapons and Britain’s at an estimated 225 warheads, against more than 5,000 each for Russia and the United States.

What it means for Europe

Earlier this year, Macron said France would increase its nuclear arsenal, and offered European partners joint exercises and the possible short-term deployment of French nuclear-capable assets on their territory. RUMMY is one of the first concrete results, and the first to involve the continent’s other nuclear power.

For the RAF, nothing changes about who controls what. For the FAS, the change is cultural: a force that has trained in deliberate isolation since the Mirage IV era now plans its strike packages with a foreign escort in mind. That is a small detail on a radar screen, and a large one in Moscow’s calculations.

It may not be the last time. Marcuz has suggested that a smaller drill of this kind could pave the way for British crews to join a future POKER, though neither government has said so.

Sources: Reuters, Forces News, French Ministry of the Armed Forces, The Aviationist, Wikipedia (Northwood Declaration)