"Five years after the French Navy received its first aircraft, the Dassault Aviation Rafale fighter has entered French air force service, with the first squadron inaugurated on Tuesday...

Two fighter squadrons based at Saint-Dizier [near Paris] will operate the Rafale including 1/7 Sqn Provence that took the official hand-over, plus a further unit based at Mont-de-Marsan near Marseilles for pilot training. The sqadron has now taken delivery of 10 Rafales, and will receive a further 10 by the end of the year, when it will attain its full operational strength.

Six further Rafale squadrons will receive the aircraft by 2020. The air forces has ordered 82 aircraft (44 single-seaters and 38 two-seaters) to date, with a further 38 ordered by the French navy. The total requirment for the French military is currently 234. The Rafales will replace 1/7 Sqn’s Sepecat GR3 JaguarA/Es."

Full article (with some great pictures) included here:

http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles...de+France.html

or

http://tinyurl.com/sxmrs

Speaking personally, I find it a very interesting aircraft: developed by a single country, unlike the multi-country initiatives which are now the norm; a genuine multi-role machine, compared to the specialist ground-attack or air superiority systems now the norm. But I am biased: ever since I saw a flight of the old Mirage aircraft training over Marseilles, doing all kinds of stuff in the sky, I've admired French military aviation.

Does that also fly?

Its not entirely accurate to say the Rafale was devolped by one country. You might remember that France was a member of the 8 nations trying to develop the Eurofighter Typhoon II. France eventually withdrew from that project because France wanted to procure a Carrier based version, while the others didn't. However France did take all the research invested so far in the Eurofighter to develop the Rafale. That's why the Rafale and the Typhoon II are so similar. As it turns out France did the right thing, as the Rafale was easier to produce due to less reliance on components from foreign countries. Also the British made a terrible error when they decided to return to CVTOL carriers a few years ago. They planned on the JSF, but negiociations broke down with Pentagon (thanks to our Brilliant Secretary of Defense and his panaché for pissing off traditional US allies) and know they have a joint aircraft carrier program with the French but no aircraft to operate it from. Unless they can recover the JSF deal, they are now going to have to pay by themselves for the expensive modifications for the Typhoon-M (the carrier based version) or the RN are going to have to buy Rafales from France.

I can just image the shock of French Fighters rolling off French-UK ships of the RN. Lord Nelson would be turning in his grave.

the JSF deal has been recoverd already, we agreed to give them the source code.

Really? Are you sure? I check around I couldnt see anything about it. I think its still under debate.

I cant find the article and its possible I may have just imagined it, but I'm sure we'll work out a deal.

Seriously? :O I thought the Rafale was already fully operational in both the Armé De L'Air and the Navy.

Originally Posted by Rabs

the JSF deal has been recoverd already, we agreed to give them the source code.

Second that!

Yesterday, he offered a more concrete gesture: an agreement to give the British access to US classified computer networks, including advanced software on the new Joint Strike Fighter aircraft. The deal means Britain will be able to operate and maintain the fighter without US assistance. "We are very pleased," a British official said. "It underlines the close defence relationship between the two countries."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1784249,00.html


Found it.

Well spotted Rabs!

I must admit, I do have reservations about the fact that the UK draws so much of its military technology from the United States. The US is moving into a more aggressive posture at the moment, for a number of reasons: I think it's important that the UK is able to stay out of some of these fights, which becomes harder to do politically if key defence technologies come under threat.