The Meteor is another one but then the typhoon would have been preferred unlike the rafale because it takes complete advantage of the meteor unlike the rafale.
Sorry, but I consider being able to take fully advantage of the Meteor's range thanks to a good AESA radar that actually works much more important than the two-way communication for which I have not seen any convincing tactical use.
It's telling that none of the export customers have bothered demanding the missing return feed. And they've asked for a lot of things!
The French themselves use the mica for most operations anyway.
The MICA is for short and medium range. It's a very good missile for this domain. The Meteor is for long range, especially high-value targets like an enemy tanker or AWACS so that with just one missile you can mission-kill an entire flight wing.
don't know from what I have read the typhoon is said to be a better air superiority fighter than the rafale.
The Typhoon is a bigger, heavier aircraft meant to do interceptions. It's actually a worse air superiority fighter than the Rafale, according to the leaked Swiss evaluations.
Notice how the Rafale scores better than the Typhoon in all roles, including all air-to-air roles? Defensive counter air, offensive counter air, and escort missions. Also better in air policing thanks to shorter reaction times, reconnaissance, and air to ground.
The evaluation by characteristics was slightly more generous to the Typhoon, giving it an edge for performances, workload, and engagement. On all other metrics, the Rafale is better, including for situational awareness, detection, identification, acquisition, and electronic warfare.
The only way to cross that height is to wear a pressure/space suit, and Rafale comes with it. As do other jets.
Don't confuse the G-suit with a space suit. The Rafale, just like other jets, come with a G-suit. The pressure is there to mitigate the effects of G forces flushing the blood out of the head during maneuvers. The Typhoon officially boasts a higher service ceiling than the Rafale but, as you said, the human limits apply to all pilots and in practice there's no real difference.
The engine, however, is optimized for high-altitude on the Typhoon while the Rafale's engine is more of an all-altitude compromise so that it's good in low-level flight too. That's where the Typhoon can get superior performances, but that's assuming a Typhoon in a clean configuration, with just the missiles mounted in the semi-recessed points, and that's where the Typhoon's low endurance comes to bite its back: sure, you can get high performances, but
not for very long.
humm.....
www.iiss.org
