Rafale is ahead of F-35 in kinematics and weapons load, it's very obvious genius, based upon open source unclassified info! Most of the Euro countries are going for F-35 because of:
1. VLO airframe.
2. US factor.
Rest, Rafale is just a more versatile, reliable and game-changing bird than F-35.
Counter question: Name one area except passive stealth where F-35 is ahead of Rafale substantially? In fact, there are various area where Rafale is clearly ahead of F-35 like kinematics, weapons load etc.
The Rafale is not a "game changing" bird like the F-35 is unless doing the old way well is the same as changing the game. F-35 is not just ahead of Rafale on stealth either. for all the complaining about "passive stealth" The Rafale is not so kinematically ahead of the F-35 as to be radically different. Especially when compared to other Mach 2+ airplanes. nothing makes me laugh harder than hearing how the Rafale is not "compromised" by stealth which is why its not even 10 percent faster than the F-35. and the F-22 and J-20 are stealth and they don't seem to suffer in performance.
Rafale and F-35 are comparable in terms in kinematics. for the F-35 this is a compliment. For the Rafale, I expected Rafale to do better than "Fattie" UAE F-16 pilots said the Rafale felt underpowered and a US Super Hornet pilot with experience said the Rafale was very comparable to a Super Hornet except in a few areas where it surpassed the F-18E/F. So that is a super hornet. not exactly kinematic dynamos. I don't see how the Rafale is more versatile than the F-35 when its lacking key mission sets like SEAD, I don't see how its more reliable since both aircraft seem to have widely varying readiness rates that seem to fluctuate and alter depending on who is flying them. The F-35s in some cases have better readiness than the French air force Rafales, weapons load is debatable depending on what we are talking about and is its own subject that may or may not even be relevant.
in the end the F-35 is a systems approach. meaning its purpose is like an aircraft carrier ; to be a platform of attack. not about having the biggest guns and most armor like a battleship which intervenes directly. The Rafale is a better battleship, and its fans keep trying to portray things like that. "my battleship will beat your aircraft carrier because we have 16" guns, and your carrier does not" using a measurement that is indeed superior but also completely irrelevant. The French are finally starting to learn this thanks to Ukraine. The Rafale is not a "game changer" because its battlefield effects are limited to the Rafale. Thats why there is such a sudden interest in SEAD again. it turns out that SAM systems have to be eliminated or heavily suppressed at all times, not just when a Rafale is flying by and temporarily jamming them.
This is largely thanks to the smaller French defense budget. They simply don't have the money to actually take on IADS, so the plan was to "bypass" them via systems like SPECTRA and save ordnance (which costs money!) for their primary targets. this is very different from the F-35 and much closer to a traditional "fighter". A Rafale can take off with 4 missiles and six bombs. An F-35 can take off with no missiles and no bombs and it will still kill more targets because it will highlight enemy targets automatically and SAMs, Artillery, Rockets, and cruise missiles will do the work. The French will say this is "politics" and I hope they continue to think that, because when they realize what the problem is, they may actually try to fix it. thats the beauty of the Rafale arguement. they keep trying to tell everyone who wants aircraft carriers that they build a better battleship. they unwitting talk themselves out of a sale. If you look at the way Boeing was trying to sell the Super Hornet in Finland you can see how they try to emulate the F-35 talking points because that is now the standard in the west. and if you look at how the Rafale fans are selling the Rafale they are now echoing the Gripen talking points. not just because they are unoriginal and lack imagination, but because cost and reliability with better kinematics and the "80 percent as good but at much less cost!" is all they have left when they aren't crying "Politique!" but like i said, they lack imagination. The idea that they might be serving an inferior product to an uninterested customer simply does not enter their brains.
Aircraft carriers don't do very much killing, but their aircraft sure do. and aircraft carriers were actually game changers. The direct fire capability of a battleship was quickly made irrelevant in Naval combat. A carrier shot down a few aircraft here and there directly, but its main weapon system was the aircraft. F-35 is the same. it will kill a few things directly, and many many more things indirectly. Thats how F-35s have kill Ratios of 20-1 in red flag while carrying what 2 or 4 missiles? Ever wonder how that is possible? its not from the 25mm cannon.
The Rafale is a lot like the maginot line that just like the old days the French are convinced is unbeatable, and operating under the circular logic that more maginot line is the cure for any faults of the maginot line because of course the maginot line is unstoppable! when you point out that the Maginot line is fundamentally flawed as a concept, they respond with more facts about the Maginot line. how deep its tunnels, how well equipped its bunkers etc. there is simply no getting through to them until the "panzers of politics" completely outflank them. Ukraine is at least offering some "soft" lessons as opposed to the hard ones and that is why we are seeing a sudden emphasis in new mission sets that were dormant in the Rafale, despite Rafale fans telling everyone the Rafale excelled in them of course, even did better than the F-35 at SEAD! only to find out that decades later there is no SEAD, and of course the F-35 was built with SEAD in mind from the start. Rafale will get it in the future, but its a needed versatility Rafale lacks to name just the really obvious one.
this concludes my TED talk. look up JADC2 if you want to get a better idea of what the goal is, and in before the French tell me the Rafale already does all this and they already have something like JADC2 and its even betterer