Omnirole by design
The origins of the RAFALE can be traced to joint discussions between European nations taking place in the early eighties. But in the wake of the tri-national Tornado program which had put the most emphasis on air-to-surface functions, it soon appeared that the prime requirement of participating nations other than France was predominantly on the air-to-air side.
The French Forces wanted a balanced multi-role aircraft that would be able to replace 7 types of aircraft around 2000-2010 :
- Jaguar (air-to-ground attack),
- Super-Etendard (carrier-based air-to-ground attack),
- Crusader (carrier-based air cover of the naval group),
- Mirage F1 (multi-role),
- Mirage 2000 C (air defence),
- Mirage 2000 N and D (precision strike/interdiction with conventional and nuclear weapons),
- Mirage 4 (nuclear strike and recce),
Two of the types to be replaced had to be carrier-based with all the resulting implications in terms of force projection capability: fast-deployed, self-supporting and lethal with limited size.
This was the rational that eventually led to the decision by the French industry and Government to go it alone on RAFALE and provide it with distinctive features tuned to world-wide - opposed to strictly West European - market expectations.
