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This article explains the structuring of French defence capitalism, based on the study of the State’s acquisition of the Rafale marine fighter aircraft in 1988. This decisional outcome is explained by studying the victory of a sovereignist clique over a liberal clique conditioned by more cohesive interpersonal relations at the political level. The sovereignist clique brought together heterogeneous civilian and military elites around a public policy agenda of defending the national territory to produce a military aircraft, rather than reducing budgetary costs by buying it off the American shelf. Based on 89 semi-directive interviews, this analysis of French defence capitalism is developed using the programmatic action framework (PAF) that is part of the sociology of public action.