The Rafale - As good as it can get. Stealth.Supercruise.Omnirole.

Oh brother!

> India could buy the Rafale if it so desires. But if everything is bought from outside, what about the indigenous defence industry ? what about indigenous research ? from where will one learn technologies ? what if there is a fallout with France sometime in the future ? who will supply the spares? etc, etc the list is endless... and most importantly > Why buy, when you can make it by yourself ??

> > It is too early to speculate anything about the MCA but the MCA appears to be F-35 class and IMHO it is intended to be more stealthier than the Rafale. It might end up being much cheaper than the Rafale as well.

India's MCA to fly in 8 years








[edit on 31-12-2005 by Stealth Spy]

[edit on 9/26/07 by FredT]

reply to post by CarlosG

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Well, apparently, you can have underwing stores without increasing the radar cros-section. I didnt do the research myself, but I've read that there are many proven sources that acknoledge that fact. So if you are interested, the internet is yours to roam!

Lol, for the same reason the French went alone in the first place. In order to be independant and develop national technologies. Apparently they don't mind risking having an inferiour self-built plane, because they hope the R&D will outweight the possible drawbacks.

He probably means that it can supercruise (i.e. under military power) until Mach 1.5 (though 1.4 is more of an official number), but to allow much larger engine life, it stays at 1.2.

I don't know about stealth. The vertical stabilizer and rudder will show up like a barn door on radar. Not much you can do to hide the signature produced by it.

I will admit it does look quite sexy though.

Why is no one buying it? Why has it been criticised by the French Minister of defence? Why is it likely that it's continued development will be curtailed? It's a pretty aircraft which at the moment has an edge (just) on the Typhoon in A2G. But even in that role it doesn't have it's own Laser Designator. A2A against a Typhoon it's dead meat. Claims that it's stealthy revolve around over hyped, dubious and unproven claims about SPECTRA and nods and winks about a special formula radar absorbing coating! Typhoon (when clean) can super-cruise but I can't find any evidence that Rafale can. In-fact it's current engines have been a source of concern. It's scheduled to get AESA in 2012 but even a question mark hangs over that. It's clear it's only going to keep pace with the competition if they secure sales to pay for further development and that's just not happening. The F 35 is the plane the French need but misplaced chauvinism means they won't get it.

The Raptor can super cruise significantly past Mach 1.5 and the official top speed is Mach 1.72, however the max super cruise speed (weight, drag, conditions considering) is likely even above that. Usually it either cruises sub sonic for very long range and endurance or high super cruise when in an active combat situation or fast point to point travel is necessary.

France went it alone because they wanted a carrier capable aircraft, and none of the other countries involved in the FEFA (Future European Fighter Aircraft) wanted that capability and so the program split into two - the Eurofighter and the Rafale.

This thread was copied from Key Forum Aviation.

Stealthspy has just added some bold front and highlighted India-centric material

Well, actually the French Navy didnt want the Rafale at all, they wanted off-the-shelf, second-hand, american F-18s, made available after aircraft-carrier retirement in the 80s..
But in order to make the Rafale unit price "affordable" they were forced to by it by the government. Decision the very same government came to regret during the first Golf war. It does appear they are happy with the plane now though.

Have you a legitimate source for this assertion?

Regards