Pending the American F-35s, the Royal Air Force should soon receive a fleet of 30 French Mirage 2000-9 fighter-bombers from the United Arab Emirates, a country with which Rabat maintains excellent relations.
Morocco will acquire new small-diameter bombs and AIM-120 missiles for its F-16s to strengthen its military arsenal.
Morocco positions itself as the 59th military power in the world out of a total of 145 countries, according to the 2025 ranking of Global Firepower.
Several Polisario militiamen from Algeria are said to have been killed by a strike from the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) as they entered the buffer zone at the level of Bir Lahlou, in the Sahara.
The arms race is intensifying in Algeria and Morocco. Is this a way for the two countries to deter or prepare for a possible war?
The transfer by the United Arab Emirates of half of their fleet of 2000-9E to Morocco is conditioned by the reception by Abu Dhabi of the French Dassault Rafale F4 aircraft scheduled for 2027.
Morocco has been investing for about ten years in strengthening and modernizing its army, increasing its military budget year after year to reach 133 billion dirhams this year, compared to 124 billion in 2024, an increase of 7.25%.
Morocco will be able to receive in the coming months the 32 F-35 fighters it has ordered from the American company Lockheed Martin.
Morocco is about to receive six new Apache AH-64E combat helicopters , produced by the American company Boeing.
The construction of a drone manufacturing plant in Morocco, with the contribution of Israel, is facing difficulties. The war in the Gaza Strip would be affecting the implementation of this project.
France failed to convince Morocco to acquire the Rafale, Dassault Aviation’s combat aircraft that has become indispensable, but "difficult to sell."
Morocco would have ordered the C-390 Millennium, a multi-mission military transport aircraft, thus becoming the tenth customer of the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer.