27 Facts About Rafale

Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation.

The Rafale is referred to as an "omnirole" aircraft by Dassault.

The Rafale is distinct from other European fighters of its era in that it is almost entirely built by one country, involving most of France's major defence contractors, such as Dassault, Thales and Safran.

Originally scheduled to enter service in 1996, the Rafale suffered significant delays due to post-Cold War budget cuts and changes in priorities.

The Rafale has been marketed for export to several countries, and was selected for purchase by the Egyptian Air Force, the Indian Air Force, the Qatar Air Force, the Hellenic Air Force, the Croatian Air Force, the Indonesian Air Force and the United Arab Emirates Air Force.

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The Rafale has been used in combat over Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Iraq and Syria.

Resultant Rafale A technology demonstrator was a large-delta winged fighter, with all-moving canards, embodying fly-by-wire flight control system.

Roughly 50 percent of the Rafale is produced by Dassault and the other half divided between two major partners, Thales and Safran, who rely on a network of 500 subcontractors.

Rafale is planned to be the French Air Force's primary combat aircraft until 2040 or later, until replacement by the Franco-German New Generation Fighter.

Rafale was developed as a modern jet fighter with a very high level of agility; Dassault chose to combine a delta wing with active close-coupled canard to maximize manoeuvrability.

The Rafale is an aerodynamically unstable aircraft and uses digital fly-by-wire flight controls to artificially enforce and maintain stability.

The Rafale M retains about 95 percent commonality with Air Force variants including, although unusual for carrier-based aircraft, being unable to fold its multi-spar wings to reduce storage space.

Thales' Areos reconnaissance pod is an all-weather, night-and-day-capable reconnaissance system employed on the Rafale, and provides a significantly improved reconnaissance capability over preceding platforms.

Rafale was first outfitted with the Thales RBE2 passive electronically scanned multi-mode radar.

In early October 2012, the first Rafale equipped with an RBE2 AA radar arrived at Mont-de-Marsan Air Base for operational service.

In 2010, France ordered 200 MBDA Meteor beyond-visual-range missiles which will greatly increase the distance at which the Rafale can engage aerial targets when the missile enters service.

The Rafale is typically outfitted with 14 hardpoints, five of which are suitable for heavy armament or equipment such as auxiliary fuel tanks, and has a maximum external load capacity of nine tons.

Rafale M is fully compatible with US Navy aircraft carriers and some French Navy pilots have qualified to fly the aircraft from US Navy flight decks.

In December 2015, American and French military officials reportedly discussed the possibility of French naval Rafale Ms flying combat missions from a US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier as soon as January 2017.

The Rafale could operate in Libya without the support of SEAD aircraft, using the onboard SPECTRA self-defence system instead.

Reportedly, Rafale crews preferred to use GPS-guided munitions with greater reliability and range.

In January 2013, the Rafale took part in "Operation Serval", the French military intervention in support to the government of Mali against the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa.

Rafale was one of the six aircraft competing in the Indian MRCA competition for 126 multirole fighters.

In 2018, the Rafale was reportedly competing against several other aircraft in a new procurement tender for 114 multi-role combat aircraft, which is referred as MMRCA 2.

On 10 February 2022, Dassault stated that Indonesia had officially signed an order for 42 Rafale F4, concluding two years of negotiations with six Batch 1 aircraft, consisting of 30 single-seat and 12 double-seat.

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Rafale was amongst various fighters proposed to replace the Royal Canadian Air Force's McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet.

In May 2019, the Rafale performed demonstration flights at Payerne Air Base for comparison against other bids.