The Étendard IVM was originally to have been replaced by a navalised version of the Jaguar, designated as the Jaguar M, but the project was dogged by a combination of political problems and issues experienced during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

One-off Naval variant. The first flight of the Jaguar M05, registered F-ZWRJ, was carried out at Melun-Villaroche by Jacques Jesberger, test pilot for the Breguet firm on November 14, 1969. On April 20, 1970, the aircraft successfully completed its first landing tests on the ASSP runway at Thurleight, Bedford, United Kingdom. On July 8, it performed its first touch and go on the aircraft carrier Clemenceau off Lorient. A dozen cycles were conducted from the 8th to the 13th before the first real catapult launch was performed on the 10th by LV Daniel Pierre.

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.