Considered technologically the most successful fighter aircraft, the Rafale was born in the early 80s from an almost European desire to find a two-plane successor, the Mirage 2000 used by the French on the one hand, the Tornado, the British aircraft on the other, used by the English, Italians and Germans. At the time, Dassault was designated as prime contractor for the cell.
In return, the British demand that the future fighter aircraft be equipped with Rolls-Royce engines. Negotiations failed. Everyone will leave with their project. Dassault, Thomson now Thales, Safran with the Rafale, the British from BEA Systems, the Italians from Finmeccanica, the Germans and the Spaniards from EADS with the Eurofighter.
It has been used by the French Navy since 2004, and by the Air Force since 2006. The Rafale, called the ‘Omnirole’ from the outset, is a Swiss army knife capable of carrying out any type of mission.
Its use in combat, from 2007 in Afghanistan, then in Libya, the Sahel and the Levant, sometimes after long raids from France, has demonstrated its effectiveness, even if it took until 2015 for the Rafale finally had its first export successes with Egypt, Qatar, then India the following year.
Order intake with Greece, Croatia, and above all the 80 aircraft destined for the United Arab Emirates, by far the largest export order for the Rafale.
As for the sale of 42 Rafale aircraft to Indonesia, it is perceived in Paris as a nice snub to the ambient defeatism caused, in September 2021, by the cancellation of the huge contract signed between the French manufacturer Naval Group and the Australian Navy.
With this sale, negotiated in the greatest discretion since the summer, Indonesia becomes France’s second largest customer in Southeast Asia, behind Singapore. This agreement is important in a region where this huge archipelago controls several key straits for world trade.