French Rafale fighter carried out a strike against a sea target with a 1,000 kg AASM bomb.

A French Navy Rafale Marine operating from the carrier Charles de Gaulle has carried out a live strike on a sea target in the eastern Mediterranean with a 1,000 kg AASM Hammer guided bomb, after a long-range mission via Italy and Greece. The shot, part of a ten-day workup, showcases France’s ability to project heavy precision fire from a single carrier air wing at very short notice and at ranges beyond 1,000 nautical miles.

According to reporting by French defense outlet Opex360, a Rafale Marine in the latest F4.1 standard has executed a live firing of the 1,000 kg AASM Hammer during a complex workup for the carrier Charles de Gaulle in the Mediterranean on 6 December 2025. Operating with support from the fleet replenishment ship Jacques Chevallier, the carrier air wing planned and delivered the strike against a naval target on Greece’s Karavia range in under twenty-four hours, using an extended range AASM 1000 released after a low-level penetration run at the end of a mission that took the aircraft across Italy and into the eastern Mediterranean.
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A French Rafale F4.1 Fighter during tests with the AASM 1000 guided bomb in 2023. (Picture source: DGA)

During this work-up period, the Charles de Gaulle carried out fifteen SECUREX safety drills, eleven ADEX air-defence scenarios, several MACOPEX operational capability training events, and an anti-ship exercise centred on the use of the Exocet. The carrier air wing included eighteen Rafale Marine aircraft, two E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft, and three helicopters, allowing air defence, strike missions, and area surveillance to be combined. Operations were conducted in close cooperation with Jacques Chevallier, which provided replenishment at sea, transfer of munitions, and logistical support, while leaving the carrier fully able to launch and recover an alert air-defence patrol.

The Modular Air to Ground Armament (AASM) is a family of guided bombs developed by Safran Electronics & Defense. It combines an inertial navigation and GPS guidance kit, which can be supplemented by an infrared or laser seeker, with a propulsion kit attached to a conventional bomb body. This modular architecture allows the kits to be adapted to several bomb bodies, from 125 to 1,000 kg, and to achieve ranges of several tens of kilometres when released from high altitude, while still allowing very low-altitude deliveries to reduce exposure to ground-based radar. In its 1,000 kg version, qualified by the French defence procurement agency (Direction générale de l’armement, DGA) in late 2022, the AASM 1000 GS is rocket-powered, guided by GPS and inertial navigation, and supplied with a dedicated support system under a contract worth 85 million euros awarded in 2017.

In the exercise conducted from the Charles de Gaulle, the French Navy used this heavy variant of the AASM Hammer bomb, with the range-extension kit installed, to engage a naval target from a distance of more than 1,000 nautical miles from the carrier. According to the DGA, the AASM 1000 is one of the new capabilities integrated into the F4 standard of the Rafale, in its F4.1 configuration, which upgrades sensors, connectivity and electronic warfare while providing improved protection against cyber threats. The combination of a warhead of around one tonne, an integrated propulsion system, and multi-mode guidance makes this munition a precise heavy-strike option usable against surface targets or hardened infrastructure on land.

Within the French carrier battle group, the Rafale F4.1 is designed to carry up to three AASM 1000 bombs, one on the centreline station and two under the wings, while retaining a mixed configuration with external fuel tanks, MICA or Meteor air-to-air missiles, and a Talios targeting pod. The aircraft, equipped with the RBE2 active electronically scanned array radar, the frontal sector optronics system, and the Spectra electronic warfare suite, uses a set of tactical data links, including Link 16, which enables the tactical picture to be shared with the carrier, the E-2C Hawkeye, and any allied partners. This combination of sensors and data links provides the fighter with a synthetic view of the battlespace while allowing it to maintain a credible self-defence posture even in a heavy-strike configuration.

The scenario selected for the strike on Karavia illustrates these capabilities in practice. Positioned to the west of Corsica, the carrier launched a patrol of two Rafale Marine aircraft, one of them in a “buddy-buddy” configuration, equipped with a Narang in-flight refuelling pod. After a refuelling rendezvous over Apulia in southern Italy, the strike Rafale continued alone towards the Greek range, flying a low-level penetration profile to reduce its signature and delay detection by ground-based air-defence systems or surface sensors. At the end of this penetration phase, the crew released an AASM 1000 against the designated naval target, demonstrating the battle group’s ability to conduct a long-range strike while keeping control over tempo and exposure to risk.

The aircraft carrier, Rafale, and AASM 1000 taken together broaden the range of French options against a naval or coastal opponent. The combination of a heavy munition, integrated propulsion, and precision guidance makes it possible to engage medium-displacement surface combatants, logistical vessels or protected port infrastructure, including when they are located behind a modern ground-based air-defence screen. The possibility of employment at very low altitude offers an additional option for avoiding radar coverage, at the cost of reduced range but with improved discretion, which remains suited to littoral scenarios or confined waterways. For commanders, the ability to receive target designation from an allied asset, a friendly frigate, or an E-2C, then conduct a rapid strike with a reaction time of less than one day, increases the operational usefulness of the carrier in limited crises below the level of a high-intensity campaign.

With this strike, France recalls that it is still one of the few European states to operate a catapult-equipped aircraft carrier able to deploy a latest-generation fighter in the F4 standard armed with heavy guided munitions such as the AASM 1000 Hammer. In an eastern Mediterranean marked by energy-related tensions, competing exclusive economic zones, and the continued presence of Russian and allied forces, the French Navy’s display of capability is interpreted as a message about its strategic posture to NATO partners and neighbouring navies. It is also part of the broader European trend towards increased use of stand-off weapons, whether cruise missiles or long-range glide bombs, in response to denser coastal air-defence systems, and reflects Paris’s intention to maintain a role in the management of naval crises in the Mediterranean and on adjacent maritime theatres.