The French Dassault Aviation Rafale fighter aircraft has crawled superbly out from under its dreary and seemingly endless export virginity. Finally! According to international agency reports, Brazil will shortly announce an order for 36 Rafale fighter planes for its air force, a decision taken shortly after the visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy to the country. The folks at Saint Cloud will be deeply chuffed by the fact that they edged out big-boy Boeing’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and Sweden’s Saab JAS-39 Gripen (and even the Lockheed-Martin F-16 Block 60 before the first downselect) from the high-stakes Brazilian competition. Obviously, it couldn’t have come at a better time for Rafale, a fighter programme that has constantly had to convince potential customers — including India — that export experience is not necessarily a function of technical superiority.
Saurabh Joshi, Editor of Stratpost says, “There seems to be little question that Rafale will now come into the MMRCA trials with the confident afterglow of a winner.” That’s a fact, no matter which way you look at it. The Rafale campaign at the MMRCA is likely to get more aggressive now, and probably infused with a much-needed dose of confidence. The Brazilian order gives the Dassault India team a great deal of latitude, but no breathing space, since the competition in India is likely to be just as predicated on politico-economic considerations as it was in Brazil (the country has added very generously to France’s military order books, including Scorpene submarines, and vice versa through France’s decision to replace its C-130 transports with Embraer equivalents). The Rafale has ongoing competitions in Greece and the UAE as well. Will have to see how those go.
The Rafale begins flight test evaluations in Bangalore in a few weeks, for which Dassault will fly in three French Air Force Rafale-Bs from the Saint-Dizier base. The game is ON, people!
funtastic news. hail rafale!!
brazil trditionally bought arms from france and so rafale this time
no wonder why rafale has been selected
but at what price rafale comioing ,
US offer was 7 billion for superhornets
and brazilians are better than indian decision makers cuz mrca being dragged for last 8 years
so
inviting f18,gripen,su35,typhoon was just a show to the world that brazil allows fare competition
A win-win for Dassault Aviation and Franco-Brazilian relations!
At least the Brazilians are way ahead in the decision makin process.
The endless Indian chai-biskoot mentality has not brought any fancy returns for the country.
So long as a sense of urgency is not infused into the neta-babudom, the Armed Forces are not going to get any of the advancedm state of the art equipment they need to be prepared for any untoward adventurism by the Chinks and Pakis.
Even a small country with idiots at the helm has already aquired a scorpeone submarine and the second one would be inducted at the end of the year. In this respect where does India stand?
The decision making clowns in MOD want to sprint even before they can take a few baby steps. Just imagine trying to build a sophisticated submarine from the ground up when they had already lost the experience of building the German submarines.
If the LCA and Kaveri does not see induction into the IAF, then whatever Indian scientists and engineers have learned would also go the HF24 way.
What India needs is committed and dedicated India-centric decision makers to take the country forward.
The Su-35 wasn't invited, no one wants that except Russia and other tinpots.
Rafale won because France agreed to buy ten KC-390 refuelers from Embraer. There is absolutely nothing that HAL makes that would even remotely interest France in terms of quality or capability.
In this case, it is a political decision because France is helping Brazil to build submarines and also will act as consultants to Brazilian nuclear sub program but will not provide the nuclear tech. The nuclear reactor is already developed by Brazil. Rafale is a good aircraft and if India also chooses it, it will be really good. Especially the Americans are crying inter-operability and inter-operability with Brazilian airforce will be a nice thing as well.
India must not bother about who selects what. We must choose the aircraft that is best suited for us. The long term perspective including maintenance availability of spares localized production etc all need to be taken into account a decision to be made without delays.
Mind you, it has also edged out Su-35!
Rafale fighter is one of the best jet with product supporting . 100 % TOT / supporting in spares , we don't have any sanctions / inspections in future .
But mentally & politically india has the idea to go on to F-18 , because of US pressure / china's thread / Powerful AESA cannot be comparable with other radars in mmrca. next best to radar's of F-22 & JSF .
Problem with Rafale remains: it is way too expensive. Let us be honest, it is not as if our coward leaders will ever declare war on another country. So let's get the best bang/buck performer: Gripen NG- MKI.
Mind you, it has also edged out Su-35
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its a political decision rather than capability of aircrafts samjhe
Rafale is not too expensive and has reasonable life cycle cost. It was designed without several moving parts like air brakes or retractable refueling probe to minimize maintenance and ensure high availability. In fact it never needs to leave its base for overhauls during its lifetime. Statements emerging from Brazil have indicated that it wasn't Rafale but F-18SH which came out having the highest life cycle cost.
haha, the French gave away all their technology for just 36 Rafales. The words aged whore comes to mind.
And also, the Rafale would be ideal for Brazil's jungle climate.
The news coming out of Brazil is contradictory. The president says they have chosen Rafale & the airforce chief says something else
Finally, someone who gets to BUY what they want to buy and Not to LEASE the fighters