The Étendard IVM was originally to have been replaced by a navalised version of the Jaguar, designated as the Jaguar M, but the project was dogged by a combination of political problems and issues experienced during trial deployments on board carriers. It suffered handling inadequcies when being flown on a single engine and a poor throttle response time that made landing back on a carrier after an engine failure difficult. In 1973, all development work on the Jaguar M was formally cancelled by the French government

A unique exhibit: the naval prototype of the Jaguar. The Jaguar M was set to replace the Etendard IV. Flight testing revealed that the aircraft was underpowered and unresponsive during a deck landing without afterburners, and overpowered with them turned on. The issues were probably curable, but ideally the M needed a bigger wing, and the Jaguar M was cancelled when Dassault promised that its all-French Super Etendard would work out cheaper.