After Croatia, no new Rafale order for France
According to our information, the Ministry of the Armed Forces does not wish to order new devices but prefers to focus on the quality of the fleet over quantity. The Rafales will have new additional mission equipment (AESA radar, Talios pod, M88 engine) purchased using the proceeds from the sale of the used Rafale.
The future Croatian order will have an impact on the Air Force's Rafale fleet. The target of 171 Rafales (including 129 for the Air Force) planned for the end of the Military Programming Law (LPM) will not be reached after all, according to our information. The Ministry of the Army does not want to order new aircraft, but prefers to focus on the quality of the fleet rather than quantity. Thus, with the proceeds from the sale of the Air Force Rafale to Croatia (more than 999 million euros), the ministry wants to buy mission equipment, which is currently lacking on the Rafales in service. To improve the Rafales' operational readiness and missions, the French defense procurement agency (DGA) will order AESA radars (Thales), which will gradually replace the RBE2s, Talios designation pods (Thales) and additional M88 engines (Safran). This will make it possible to more quickly eliminate all the different standards of the Rafales in service (currently the latest standard is the F3R). These purchases therefore go beyond the forecasts in the 2019-2025 LPM. Above all, this equipment will improve the performance of the Rafale. Typically, the Meteor air-to-air missile will be fully operational with an AESA radar.
This decision is clearly different from that taken after the Rafale contract in Greece (18 aircraft sold, including 12 used): the Minister then wanted to replace the 12 used Rafale sold in Athens with 12 new Rafale for the army of the air. He had also planned within the framework of the Ravel program to put back in flight 10 Rafale, which had been parked by the air force and cannibalized in order to serve as spare parts for planes leaving on mission or in training. In theory, the Air Force will therefore benefit in the long term from 22 additional "in service" aircraft. Finally, export contracts in Egypt then in Greece as well as the national orders made it possible to restore visibility for several years to the Rafale chain of Dassault Aviation. There is no longer any urgency concerning the industrial chain of the tricolor combat aircraft, which sustains a network of 500 French companies.