Charles de Gaulle et Rafale au Afghanistan

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The Dassault Rafale (English: Squall) is a French twin-engined delta-wing highly agile multi-role fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. The Rafale is being produced both for land-based use with the French Air Force and for carrier-based naval operations with the French Navy. It has also been marketed for export. While several countries have expressed interest in the Rafale, there have been no foreign sales as of yet.

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 AdlA SEPECAT Jaguars and Aéronavale F-8 Crusaders), and their requirements were similar enough to be merged into one project.

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. Production orders were placed in 1988.

Further testing continued, including carrier touch-and-go landings and test-flying early M88 engines, before the Rafale A was retired in 1994. Though the Rafale A and British Aerospace EAP were broadly comparable, when the first Eurofighter made its maiden flight in March 1994, pre-series Rafales had been flight-testing for three years, including carrier trials (Rafale C01, Rafale M01, and Rafale B01 first flew in May 1991, December 1991, and April 1993 respectively). Three versions of Rafale were in the initial production order: * Rafale C (Chasseur) 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

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. Catapult trials were initially carried out between July 13 and August 23, 1992 at NAS Lakehurst in New Jersey, USA and NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, USA, as France had no land-based catapult test facility. The aircraft then undertook trials aboard the carrier Foch.

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. 60% of the aircraft will be two seaters. 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 uncertainty meant that it was not until 1999 that a production Rafale M flew.

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[DaGStormy]

Search the result of the last simulations air show realised in Saudi Arabia..

Rafale vs Eurofighter (first day) : 3 - 1

Rafale vs Eurofighter (2° day) : 7 - 1

Rafale vs F16 : 4 - 0 & 8 - 0

The eurofighter is a commercial product man, the rafale is a true weapon.

[XavierB0126]

sorry "but the Eurofighter and the Raptor are the best in the world for combat. " its wrong.

recently Rafale gave again a good spank to the EF typhoon and equal the F22 during Tactical leader course something in UAE. ( last november)

in Air to Air combat. Rafale deafeated typhoon.

4 Rafale against 4 EF typhoon: score : 4-0 first round and 3-1 snd round ( both BVR and Dogfight )

against F22, Rafale was locked once by F22 raptors and also locked a raptor out of 6 dogfights ( 1-1 and 4 draw )

t

[quintonhenwood]

the fa18 is 4. the f15 has 6 the rafale m is 8 wow wow wow

[quintonhenwood]

8 missiles on this plane! the f16 can only hold 4

[MrBibou69]

@wollin20 tu croyais quoi... 20 ans c'est un minimum pour développer un avion! c'est pareil pour tout le monde. ça veut pas dire qu'il est pas à la pointe du progrès ^^

[DREwestcoast]

retablir la paix? HAHAHAHAHHAHA

[esprit83990]

Et bien ça fait plaisirs de voir enfin le rafale en mission, et montrer notre savoir faire et fiabilité sur le terrain pour prouver que nous sommes bon aussi .

[wollin20]

@DaGStormy Et ils ont acheté quoi, en fin de comptes, les Séoudites? Des avions américains ou des avions américains? De toute façon, vendre des armes à ce régime de connards n'est pas une gloire. Le Brésil me semble infiniment plus un allié (dans le sens où ils nous aideraient si on était vraiment dans la merde) que cette dictature que nous ne soutenons que pour son pétrole. Et j'approuve même le transfert de technologies qu'ils ont su habilement négocier.

[wollin20]

"Lancé par Marcel Dassault IL Y A 20 ANS": Le Rafale est un bon avion (et très beau, ça ne gâche rien) mais "à la pointe du progrès"...Sans compter que le progrès serait plutôt de guérir, d'éduquer, de permettre une vie décente. Jamais on ne rappelle que l'Armée n'est là que pour nous DEFENDRE (Ministère de la défense)...C'est là tout l'honneur (Et c'est déjà énorme) de l'armée française, que je respecte profondément, mais TF1, par contre...

[nonamebrand0]

the modern French military is pretty bad-ass. the Rafale is the best carrier aircraft around, i wish my country (Canada) would get them instead of F-35's. The two engined design is almost perfect for operations over a country as vast as Canada, thats actually the reason we have CF-18s.

When is France going to build their second aircraft carrier? I thought their doctrine was to have 2, so one could always be active?

[FeelFree3]

Nice plane. Dassault usually use delta wing design may be always.

[subzyro5]

@chenoir it depends on the skills of a pilot.