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Dassault Rafale

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The Dassault Rafale (French, Squall) is a French twin-engine delta-wing fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. Dassault described the Rafale as being an omnirole fighter. The Rafale is a multirole combat aircraft; capable of simultaneously undertaking air supremacy, interdiction, and reconnaissance missions.

In the late 1970s, the Armée de l'Air and Marine Nationale were seeking to replace and consolidate their current fleets of aircraft. In order to reduce development costs and boost prospective sales, France entered into an arrangement with four other European nations to produce an agile multi-purpose fighter, but subsequent disagreements over workshare and differing requirements led to France's pursuit of its own development program. Dassault built a technology demonstrator which first flew in July 1986 as part of an eight-year flight-test programme, paving the way for the go-ahead of the project.

The Rafale's design and production processes exploited the unprecedented advancements in software technology; these have enabled the integration of formerly individual components and combined with intelligent automated analysis processes, known collectively as data fusion. Many of the aircraft's avionics and features, such as direct voice input (DVI), the RBE2 AA active electronically scanned array (AESA) RDF and the Optronique secteur frontal (OSF) infra-red search and track sensor, were indigenously developed and produced for the Rafale programme.

Introduced in 1996, the Rafale is being produced for both the Armée de l'Air and for carrier-based operations in the Marine Nationale. It has also been marketed for export to several countries. Several upgrades to the radar, engines, and avionics of the Rafale are planned to be introduced in the near-future.

Variants[]

  • Rafale A: Technology demonstrator, first flew in 1986.
  • Rafale D: Dassault used this designation (D for discrète) in the early 1990s to emphasize the new semi-stealthy design features.
  • Rafale B F-3R: Two-seater version for the French Air Force
  • Rafale C F-3R: Same as Rafale B F3-R but Single-seat version for the French Air Force.
  • Rafale M F-3R: Same as Rafale C F3-R but Carrier-borne version for the French Naval Aviation, which entered service in 2001. For carrier operations, the M model has a strengthened airframe, longer nose gear leg to provide a more nose-up attitude, larger tailhook between the engines, and a built-in boarding ladder. Consequently, the Rafale M weighs about 500 kg (1,100 lb) more than the Rafale C.
  • Rafale N: Originally called the Rafale BM, was a planned missile-only two-seater version for the Aéronavale. Budgetary and technical constraints have been cited as grounds for its cancellation.
  • Rafale R: Reconnaissance-oriented variant of the Rafale.
  • Rafale B/C/M F4: This variant will have upgraded radar (F4.1), as well as improved capabilities in the Helmet-Mounted Display and AASM 1000 kg. The OSF (long-range optoelectronics system) will add IRST (Infrared Search and Track) for detecting and identifying airborne stealth targets at long range (F4.1). It will be more effective in network-centric warfare, with more data exchange and satellite communication capacity and will launch small (F4.2).

Export Variants[]

  • Rafale DA: Two-seater version for the Arabian Air Force
  • Rafale EA: Single-seat version for the Arabian Air Force
  • Rafale EB: Single-seater version for the Brazilian Air Force
  • Rafale MB: Carrier based version for the Brazilian Navy
  • Rafale DCr: Two-seater version for the Croatian Air Force
  • Rafale ECr: Single-seater version for the Croatian Air Force
  • Rafale DM: Two-seater version for the Egyptian Air Force
  • Rafale EM: Single-seater version for the Egyptian Air Force
  • Rafale DG: Two-seater version for the Hellenic Air Force
  • Rafale EG: Single-seater version for the Hellenic Air Force
  • Rafale DI: Two-seater version for the Indonesian Air Force
  • Rafale EI: Single-seater version for the Indonesian Air Force
  • Rafale DIQ: Two-seater version for the Iraqi Air Force
  • Rafale EIQ: Single-seater version for the Iraqi Air Force
  • Rafale DL: Two-seater version for the Libyan Air Force
  • Rafale EL: Single-seater version for the Libyan Air Force
  • Rafale DP: Two-seater version for the Portuguese Air Force
  • Rafale EP: Single-seater version for the Portuguese Air Force
  • Rafale DQ: Two-seater version for the Qatar Emiri Air Force
  • Rafale EQ: Single-seater version for the Qatar Emiri Air Force
  • Rafale DS: Two-seater version for the Swiss Air Force
  • Rafale ES: Single-seater version for the Swiss Air Force
  • Rafale DU: Two-seater version for the United Arab Emirates Air Force
  • Rafale EU: Single-seater version for the United Arab Emirates Air Force
  • Rafale DY: Two-seater version for the Royal Yugoslav Air Force
  • Rafale EY: Single-seater version for the Royal Yugoslav Air Force


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