Presentation of Dassault Rafale

Video presentation of Dassault Rafale one of the main candidates for the 4th generation fighter of Hellenic Air Force (HAF)...by Dassault Aviation.

The Dassault Rafale 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.

Development
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.
At one time the French forces were expected to order 294 Rafales: 232 for the Air Force and 60 for the Navy. But as time passed, these number dropped and to date 120 Rafales have been officially ordered. These are being delivered in three separate batches, the most recent being the December 2004 order for 59 Rafales, though the French Ministry of Defence has revealed that this figure is currently under study and is likely to be reduced to 51 aircraft "for the same overall cost". 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."
The marine version has priority since the aircraft it is replacing are much older Vought F-8 fighters . Service deliveries began in 2001 and the type "entered service" on 4 December 2000, though the first squadron, Flotille 12, did not actually reform until 18 May 2001. The unit embarked on the Charles de Gaulle in 2002, becoming fully operational on 25 June 2004, following an extended opeval (operational evaluation) which included flying limited escort and tanker missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom over Afghanistan. Though restricted to an air-to-air role, with a limited range of weapons the Rafale M was claimed by some to be the most advanced fighter in service in Europe.

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