By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior
The French Dassault Rafale fighter jet name literally means “gust of wind” or “burst of fire” in English, a concept which seems to have gotten traction around the world because the French-built twin engine fighter jet is used by more than nine countries as well as France.
The indigenous French fighter was originally part of a European teaming arrangement to build the Eurofighter, a multi-national collaborative effort which has now become the well known “Typhoon.” France, however, exited this UK, Italy, Spain Germany collaborative initiative and built its own Dussault fighter.
The aircraft does have its own distinct look as it has two wings on each side, a semi smooth, rounded blended wing body and thin angular front section. Described as a 4.5-Gen aircraft, the Dussalt Rafael incorporates the extremely effective and widely used Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar to search for and lock down targets in close coordination with frontal “infrared search and track” sensors. Unlike the multi-national European Typhoon, the French Dussault’s sensors, EW, avionics and weapons systems were all built entirely in the single country of France.
There are many variants of the aircraft to include a single-seat carrier-launched aircraft and the platform has a top speed of Mach 1.8; the Dassault is identified as a multi-role fighter capable of air-to-air, air-to-surface and air-to-ground attack.
Although described as a multi-role fighter, much like an F-35, the Dussault Rafael may not possess US 5th-generation technological assets. The Dussault has 14 external hard points and can take off with a full complement of weapons to include air-dropped precision bombs, air-fired Storm Shadow Missiles, air-to-air weapons and a nuclear-capable cruise missile called the ASMP-A.
While built by French companies Dussault Rafael, Thales and Safran, the fighter became quite successful as an international platform and is in service with India, Egypt, Qatar, Greece, Croatia, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates and Serbia. The fighter has been used in combat over Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Syria.
The aircraft is newer than many 4th-gen aircraft which emerged in the 1980s such as the F-15 and F-16, yet its continued relevance hinges upon the extent to which it has been upgraded. If the Dussault Rafael has been upgraded or undergone some type of modernization effort or Service Life Extension Plan, then it could indeed prove extremely worthwhile in conflicts against 4th-generation aircraft. There have been so many technological breakthroughs in the last 20 years that the Dussault would have to have received regular upgrades in order to compete in a modern threat environment. Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
