Dassault Rafale - Variants, Characteristics, Armament and Performance

  • missile depends on preference
  • Ground attack, nope, but the typhoon was designed with air superiority in mind anyway
  • HMD i agree
  • Flight performance is better on typhoon, especially to give energy to a missile or fight in 2c
  • MAWS ? it works for both, who cares ?
  • IRST is the same as well

if one planes takes the advantage while both get fixed, then the BR should be the balancing tool, removing a feature on one of the plane isn’t the way to go

for now though, seing as both are top of the food chain at 14.0, i agree that any further buff, even if historical, can wait a bit (except for typhoon’s radar, i agree this is a quite urgent matter)

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Rafale is not just missing some QOL features, rafale will always miss and suffer more from it’s features than the typhoon and will always be more disadvantaged as more and more features as added in the game.

With how Gaijin works every plane that invest some a big amount in stealth will always be inferior compared to a plane with as much missiles as possible and a good flight model.

At least irl it is not and by far.

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They were both designed as multirole.
At least from the British requirements.

Typhoons flight performance is great its fast and has great TWR it is not that much better than a Rafale. And over time it will likely be adjusted

6 120s and 2 aim9m is going to be inferior to 8 MICAs. Especially if you use terrain and close the distance. Typhoons Radar wouldnt see you anyway ha ha

But yes it is preference.

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I think at the end of the day we kind of agree.

My main point being : i don’t think comparing the 2 aircrafts all the time, and especially in this thread, will get EF’s lacking features fixed any quicker.

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For sure bud!

Yup but still Irl typhoon struggle to have such performance in combat.

For example, in it’s design the winglet at the front are messing with the pilot field of view in contrary of the rafale. Turnrating is Better too for the rafale, overall it’s a better plane. And in game, the rafale lack performance too.

For example the typhoon in game is the best version ever builted. The rafale placed in game is not even the best possible such as the rafale F4. He lack top speed, maneouvrability, radar performance, anyway. But in game it seems that the typhoon will always be way better than the rafale in a multitude of way.

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Rafale is an excellent airframe
If we are talking real world.

It would be very close both have Meteor BVRAAM
Mica IR and ASRAAM/IRIS-T are similar in performance.

The Rafale in game one of the later version it is a combination of the C F3 Indian version.
In French service the Rafale would be the C F4

Only real changes are improved ECCM and Talios pod integration.

Typhoon is Tranche 2/3. Tranche 4 will bring Typhoon with a the new CAPTOR-E Radar and Striker 2 HMD and
Praetorian DASS impovements.

Can’t wait to see the F.5 final config - I can only imagine how SmartGliders, Meteor MLU (two more missiles overall), new Cruise Missile, ARM, vastly improved RBE2-XG, SPECTRA improvements and maybe M88-3 look like all together )))

I wonder how a Rafale with TVC would look like / perform lol.

Funny thing about that; the Indian Rafale standard (lets stop calling it F.3R please) is very close and already shares features as well as hardware from F.4 standard.
What we have in-game is just a “what if” config based on wrong interpretation of pictures and second party sources. Only the HMCS is relatable, the two additional MICA are incorrect.
(Basically the M2K and 4x Magic story all over again…)

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Thats fair im not knowledgeable when it comes to variants.

The Rafale will supercede the Typhoon because it has to. France haven’t commited to a Gen 5 airframe.

The Rafale will perform the heavy lifting until the European Gen 6 programme is delivered.
Britain and Italy operate the F-35 with Germany placing orders and Spain in need of the Av8B replacements.
The necessity to upgrade the Typhoon to TVC and AMK levels isnt needed or a priority.

Sadly we will likely never see the “final boss” version of the Typhoon

MICA IR happens to have datalink which the others don’t and more range (although ASRAAM has a lot of range as well).

The other thing is that 8x MICA IR can be carried by the Rafale while the same can’t occur for the EFT when it comes to the ASRAAM/IRIS-T. So more IIR missiles can be carried by the Rafale which contains datalink and ability to update mid-course even with the IRST while PIRATE can only initially fire it but cannot update mid-course which can mean ASRAAM and IRIS-T never finds the target in the first place.

Then there’s the issue of MICA NG IR, which contains 60% greater range. In the future we could see a potential loadout of 8x MICA NG IR.

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I predict that Rafale F4 standard for france tech tree start Rafale B F4.1

Rafale EH built on Rafale F3R but pre integrated domestic indian weapons and close to Rafale F4.1 standard

Ah yes, so it’ll blow up at 50.9km rather than 50.8 this time right?

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Gaijin moment

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F.3R serves as SOP (Standard of Preparation), basically as basis for export since ~2016. Indias EH has, unlike standard F.3R, hardware and other features from F.4, making it its own standard.

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The issue is not with the origin of the source. There is no dispute on that there.

Simply the information provided within.

Classified material will never be used or handled and is not permitted to be shared on any of our platforms: Source Material: Restrictions on Classified and Export Restricted information (“Military Restrictions”)

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i wonder how this missile compares to the Peregrine

Very much untrue.

Is it tho ? last news from mbda on their official website said it would be 40% increase, even tho 70km would still be really good.

It could be more than the 40% but well, at least hopefully we will get either more news with the delivery of the mica ng or in 2026.

Are you sure ASRAAM cannot be data linked?

It has a LOAL feature would would suggest some sort of data link, it can also be guided by the PIRATE system

Never finds its target…no way it can track those massive heat emissions…

“The missile can be deployed using lock before launch capability to engage targets in the forward hemisphere. It can be launched in ‘lock after launch’ mode to engage targets beyond the seeker acquisition range.”

“The ASRAAM is guided by an advanced, accurate focal plane array Imaging Infra-Red (IIR) seeker developed by Raytheon. The passive homing guidance system provides the ability to significantly track, acquire and engage targets beyond visual range (BVR) under severe clutter and countermeasures environmental situations.”

This is all on the first version of ASRAAM considering we are now on Block 5/6 the missile will have only improved. It will be challenging to hide from an ASRAAM.
IRIS-T is a close range HOB similar to the AIM9X it will excel in close range engagements

Don’t be so quick to dismiss what other nations have.

2023 ASRAAM datasheet.pdf

Low altitude and the ranges the MICA excels at they really are a few changes in direction into the notch some chaff and change altitude and they will miss in most cases. It’s even easier if the shot comes from below as the seeker is not in PD filter mode and chaff will defeat it