The Rafale, a fully “Omnirole” fighter, is available in three variants:
All three variants share a common airframe and a common mission system, the differences between naval and land versions being mainly limited to the undercarriage and to the arresting hook. and the ability to be a training aircraft for the Rafale B.
Compact, extremely powerful, agile and very discreet, the Rafale not only carries the widest and most advanced range of sensors, it also boosts their effectiveness tenfold thanks to an innovative design and particularly high-performance technologies.
With its delta wing and canards coupled aerodynamically to the wing, this choice has resulted in the Rafale’s excellent behaviour on missions: it remains agile in flight at high angle of attack, and its range, even in the heaviest configurations, is unrivalled for an aircraft in its class.
The advanced digital “Fly-by-Wire” (FBW) Flight Control System (FCS), which provides for longitudinal stability, attains the highest level of flight safety with over one million flight hours without a single accident caused by the FCS.
Automatic terrain following and the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (AGCAS) give the Rafale excellent survivability, enabling it to penetrate enemy airspace undetected, even without visibility, at very high speed and very low altitude, day and night, in good weather and bad, to avoid the most dangerous ground-to-air threats. It protects pilots in the most challenging situations by considerably reducing the risk of CFIT (Controlled Flight Into Terrain). As a result, the crew can concentrate fully on their mission.
Thanks to appropriate shapes and materials, the Rafale has an extremely low radar signature. The technical features that contribute to this result are mostly confidential, but some are clearly visible, such as the serrated patterns on the trailing edge of the wings and canards.
Renowned for their robustness, Dassault Aviation’s aircraft can easily exceed 30 years of operational service without major structural renovation. The Rafale airframe fatigue is monitored with the same gauge-free concept which has proved its worth on the Mirage 2000 fleet.
Composite materials are extensively used in the Rafale and they account for 70% of the wetted area. They also account for the 40% increase in the max take-off weight to empty weight ratio compared with traditional airframes built of aluminium and titanium.
With a thrust of 10,971 lbs dry and 16,620 lbs with afterburner, the M88-2 incorporates cutting-edge technologies to ensure exceptional controllability throughout the flight envelope: the engine can be reduced to minimum power and returned to full PC load in less than three seconds.
Combined with a large internal and external fuel-carrying capacity, it helps to provide combat crews with an unrivalled endurance and range for an aircraft in this range, minimising the need for air-to-air refuelling, while providing political and military decision-makers with an aircraft capable of carrying out in-depth missions of strategic importance.
The M88-2 is a motor incorporating cutting-edge technology: a new-generation dual-flow motor offering a high-performance thrust-to-weight ratio, ease of maintenance, excellent reliability and low running costs.