The Rafale:A Historical

A Rafale-M Marine Nationale'

A Rafale M variant catapulting


    In the mid 1970s, both the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) and Navy (Aéronavale) had a requirement (the Navy's being rather more pressing) to find a new generation of fighter (principally to replace AdA SEPECAT Jaguars and Aéronavale F-8 Crusaders), and their requirements were similar enough to be merged into one project.
   The Dassault Rafale was ordered (as Avion de Combat Tactique, ACT) to replace the French Air Force Jaguars and (as Avion de Combat Marine, ACM) French Navy Crusaders and Super Etendards. The Rafale A technology demonstrator was rolled out in late 1985 and made its maiden flight on 4 July 1986, The SNECMA M88 engines being developed were not considered sufficiently mature for the initial trials programme to be conducted without risk (though their development status has often been underplayed), so the demonstrator flew with General Electric F404-GE-400 afterburning turbofans as used on the F/A-18 Hornet. The demonstrator impressed the French Ministry of Defence enough to place production orders in 1988.The first flight of the Rafale A prototype (F-ZJRE) was 4 July 1986 and retired in 1994. The prototype Rafale C flew in 1991, the first of two Rafale M prototypes flew later that year, the prototype Rafale B flew in early 1993 and the second Rafale M prototype flew later that year.

   Three versions of Rafale were in the initial production order:
     Rafale C (Chasseur:fighter) Single-seat fighter for the AdA (Armée de l'Air, French Air Force)
     Rafale B (Biplace) Two-seat fighter for the AdA
     Rafale M (Marine) Single-seat carrier fighter for the Aéronavale

   Initially the Rafale B was to be just a trainer, but Gulf War and Kosovo experience showed that a second crewmember is invaluable on strike and reconnaissance missions, and therefore more Rafale Bs were ordered, replacing some Rafale Cs. A similar decision was made by the Navy, who initially did not have a two-seat aircraft on order; the program nevertheless was stopped.
Political and economic uncertainity meant that it was not until 1999 that a production Rafale M flew.First production Rafale M (No. 1) flew at Bordeaux 7 July 1999. The Rafale programme had by then accumulated over 4,000 sorties.

   The French forces were once expected to order 292 Rafales: 232 for the Air Force and 60 for the Navy. Reductions are now widely predicted, and only 120 Rafales have been officially ordered to date.It was hinted that the sacrifice of 8–12 aircraft would "allow for the introduction of new sensors developed by the French industry on this batch."

   A test airframe, in Rafale M configuration, was delivered to CEAT at Toulouse for ground trials where it completed 10,000 simulated flights, including 3,000 catapult take-offs and 3,000 deck landings by March 1993. The structural validation of the Rafale airframe was achieved 15 December 1993.

   The French Air Force preference was switched to the operational two-seat (pilot and WSO) derivative of the Rafale C in 1991. It was announced in 1992 that 60 per cent of the procurement was to be two-seat, although 16 aircraft were deleted from the requirements at this time. The procurement target was later further reduced. The two-seat version of the naval Rafale was announced in September 2000.

The Rafale is a 4.5th generation aircraft