René Audran (1929 – Jan 25, 1985) was a senior official of the French Ministry of Defence who was responsible for managing the country's foreign arms sales.
He is known for being assassinated on 25 January 1985 by the armed group Action directe (AD) in front of his residence in La Celle-Saint-Cloud.
At the time of his death, René Audran had attained the rank of Engineer General of the Corps of Armament.
His assassination occurred a year before Action directe's killing of industrialist Georges Besse who had been involved in nuclear cooperation with Iraq as well.
After his death, Audran was awarded the Citation à l'ordre de la Nation.