While the signing of the contract for the sale of 22 Rafale M and 4 Rafale B for the Indian Navy is suspended at the end of negotiations between MBDA and the authorities in New Delhi, the site laTribune.fr, always very well informed, indicated in a recent article that this sale could be accompanied by the transfer of two Rafale Used M.
If this decision could hamper the operation of the three French naval fighter fleets, which represent 3 of the 36 Rafale M in park, it opens, at the same time, a formidable opportunity to replace part of the 9 Rafale M entered into service from 2000 to 2002, and perhaps even to replenish the inventory of the French Navy, by replacing the 4 Rafale M lost by accident since that date.
In this section:
The Navy must replace the first 9 Rafale M and the 4 lost to maintain his embarked fighter fleet
In fact, the French Navy was the first air force to receive the fighter. Rafale, between 2000 and 2002. The aim was to replace the last F-8 Crusaders still in service within the 12F flotilla, which were out of breath and totally obsolete from an operational point of view, at the same time as the nuclear aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle entered service.
The nine aircraft, from the M2 to the M10, were delivered to the F1 standard, equipped with advanced air-to-air capabilities, thanks to the MICA missile and the RBE2 radar, but with limited air-to-ground strike or anti-ship capabilities. They were mothballed from 2008 to 2013, before being upgraded to the F3 multi-mission standard from 2014 to 2018.
The second tranche Rafale, delivered from 2004 to 2008, included 24 Rafale B and 6 Rafale C for the Air Force, as well as 15 Rafale Additional M, from M11 to M26. The last aircraft were delivered in tranche 3 (11 aircraft from 2009 to 2013), and tranche 4 (7 aircraft from 2014 to today).
At the same time, the Navy lost 4 Rafale, the M22 and M25 in 2009 following a mid-air collision, the M18 in 2010 following a pilot error, and the M24 in 2012, after the aircraft took a blast from the engines of an F-18.
Today, therefore, the French Navy has 41 Rafale M out of the 46 delivered (the M01 was only a prototype), of which 36 are aligned by the three flotillas 11F, 12F and 17F, forming the French embarked fighter.
However, by the admission of the Navy staff itself, the first Rafale M delivered, today show significant signs of fatigue, linked to the specific constraints of their on-board use (landing, marine environment, etc.). It is therefore unlikely that these devices will be able to continue to serve beyond 2030, and they will have to, without the slightest doubt, leave service before the arrival of the NGF, the replacement for the Rafale developed under the FCAS program, scheduled to enter service in 2040.
Two Rafale Used M, sold to India on the sidelines of the contract for 26 aircraft which could be signed this year?
It is in this context that the confirmation made by laTribune.fr, concerning the possible sale of 2 Rafale M used to the Indian Navy, on the sidelines of the signing of a contract for the acquisition of 22 Rafale M and 4 Rafale B to arm the new aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.
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Updated 6/09/24 18:30 p.m.
According to information obtained, it would appear that the Navy is not informed of this procedure with regard to India. The option concerning the sale of Rafale M d'occasion would have been discarded two years ago, to be replaced by a training offer (If it is indeed a question of training the instructors, this seems appropriate.
The Air Force unfortunately lost two pilots...and two Rafale a few days ago..
Given that it is not overabundance or excess that characterizes the numbers of Rafale in service with the French forces, and beyond the budgetary problems that you usefully address in other articles, is Dassault able to deliver "quickly" Rafale replacement for the AAE?
The disappearance of two Rafale Will it not cause the number of hours flown per pilot to fall even further, a figure which seems to be decreasing year on year, while hours on the simulator cannot replace it, according to the pilots themselves, it seems?
In your opinion, what are the short, medium and long term consequences of the loss of two planes and two pilots in a context that can be described as "scarcity"?
Please note, do not confuse the Rafale M01 and M02 which were prototypes with the Rafale M1 and M2 which were standard F1 production (the M1 having been loaned to Dassault).
I get fooled all the time with the nomenclature ))
Thank you for this new article, the quality of the information given and the analyses made being truly a marker of this site.
I just wonder if the first 10 Rafale Marine (M1 to M10) initially delivered to the F1 standard are the most rinsed since they were placed in a cocoon for at least 5 years (more for the last ones which were retrofitted) and their very advanced retrofit to bring them to the F3 standard could have been the occasion for in-depth maintenance operations (which I do not know).
The Rafale Couldn't the most worn Marines be the first to be delivered to the F2 standard (M11 and following) from 2004?
When addressing parliament, the CEMM spoke of "older aircraft". That said, it is not out of the question.
If Dassault manages, as it has announced, to increase its production rate by Rafale at 3 per month by the end of 2024 then at 4 by the end of 2025, how is the delivery of devices produced in advance of the initial schedule supposed to be organized?
Do we deliver the devices before the date initially set, which intuitively seems logical but can come up against questions of financing, organization or training, or do we strictly execute the contract and in particular its delivery schedule by accepting other orders that can be partially executed?
In the same spirit, are there contractual provisions which provide that the State may have priority, for reasons of national security, in the delivery schedule?
The past seems to show, as regards both naval and aeronautical production, that the opposite situation exists to support the exports of the BITD or the diplomatic relations of France...
In fact, DA adapts its production according to its order book, and especially to the current contracts. So this increase has been planned for a long time, and is integrated into the contracts with Indonesia, the UAE, Serbia, India and, of course, France. The public announcement is the last. There is no need to worry from this point of view. DA is an old lady, who knows very well how to manage this kind of thing.
French prioritization depends on the context. In peacetime, there is a tendency to put exports before the French armies, which allows, among other things, the armies to free up immediate credits for other subjects. In times of tension, it is supposed to be the opposite. But let us recognize that the case has not yet arisen.
We will have to see who will be in charge of these ministries... I am not particularly confident in fact.
But the concept is, as always, strikingly interesting.