Le Rafale M is preferred by the Indian Navy over the Super Hornet

If Dassault Aviation and the Team Rafale experienced two prosperous years in 2021 and 2022 in terms of exports, with the sale of almost 180 aircraft Rafale new to Greece, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, several other negotiations are regularly mentioned as progress close to a conclusion, with for example Serbia and Iraq. But the greatest export potential of the French aircraft in the months and years to come lies in India, with the MMRCA 2 competition for 57 or 114 aircraft for the Indian Air Force, as well as the competition which has opposed the naval version of the device for almost 2 years, the Rafale M, to Boeing's F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, to equip the Indian Navy's aircraft carriers. This competition covers 26 devices intended to serve as an interim solution pending the entry into service of the Twin-Engined Deck Based Fighter, or TEDBF, a program led by the Indian armament agency DRDO to design and build a modern carrier-based medium fighter of nationally by the end of the decade.

To decide between the two devices, the Indian Navy conducted a meticulous test campaign to evaluate the performance of the Rafale M like the Super Hornet, in particular to determine their capabilities to be effectively implemented from a STOBAR aircraft carrier, that is to say not having catapults like the American and French ships, but a springboard or Skijump, as is the case today with the INS Vikramaditya, and the new aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. The few photos published by the Indian press about these tests which were held at the Goa naval air base showed that le Rafale M was very satisfied with this device, and could even take to the air in a configuration close to that used on board the Charles de Gaulle. Since then, the United States and Boeing had spared no effort to try to influence Indian public opinion, with major press campaigns extolling the merits of its aircraft, where Dassault Aviation had remained, as usual. , particularly discreet.

The report concluding this test campaign was sent to the Indian authorities recently, and according to the Indian press, the results are clear: For the Indian Navy, the Rafale M meets its needs better than the Super Hornet, the French aircraft having been judged "more capable of satisfying the operational requirements and criteria of the Indian Navy", opening the way to a final arbitration by the Indian authorities, now very probably in favor of the French embarked fighter. This would also represent a significant success for Dassault Aviation, which has never to date exported a naval combat aircraft intended to operate from an aircraft carrier, while the last Western conventional naval fighter exported for this mission does not. was other than the F-4 Phantom 2, the market having been captured, over the last 5 decades, by fighters with short or vertical takeoff and landing, the Harrier/Sea Harrier and the F-35B.

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