At present, the Saudi Arabian Air Force's Tornado IDS fighter bomber is obsolete, and the British are proposing to sell 72 additional Eurofighters, but the contract has not yet been reached. France's Rafale can also be expected to sell as a replacement for Tornado IDS. Of course, from the perspective of Saudi Arabia, the introduction of an additional F-15 or Eurofighter would be a better choice in terms of the military supply system.
MMRCA 2.0 - Updates and Discussions
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Yes. If a contract for supplying Rafale in Saudi Arabia and the UAE is signed, it will be necessary to expand Rafale production lines. Maybe in IndiaYes but the Germans are blocking the sale of new Typhoons
UAE is the only target for a potential Rafale sell.
SA is fully equipped with EF2000 and F15. It is a private garden for english and more important for US air products. No way for Rafale there. A lack of energy....
In the air to ground mission and deep strike Rafale is far more potent than EF2000. But it's not a free open market.
I agree that Rafale's air-to-ground abilities are stronger than Eurofighters. The Eurofighter's air-to-ground armament capabilities are still very limited. The integration of SCALP-EG is also very recent, almost 10 years behind Rafale.
If the UAE buys Rafale, it's probably a replacement for the Mirage 2000-9. The UAE will purchase at least 50 Rafales. Is the Mirage 2000-9 upgrade contract currently in progress? If so, the conclusion of the Rafale contract will be quite far away. Perhaps Qatar could also consider the option to purchase 36 additional Rafales (24+12+36 = 72 in total) signed at the time of the 2015 contract.
There's a lot of potential for the sale of Rafale in the Middle East and SE Asia.
I believe that any potential for the Saudis to own Rafales will depend on what Iran does over the next 2 years.
But one thing that sticks out is none of these ME air forces have a modern SEAD/DEAD capable fighter and only the F-35 and Rafale can fulfill that role at this time. The Iranian ADGE has changed drastically over the years and will likely be further supplemented by the S-400. There's no way the UAE/Saudi jets can penetrate their ADGE with their existing inventory.
Rafale has proven very good in the SEAD / DEAD missions in Libya and the Levant. However, countries that are considering purchasing Rafale will have doubts about the ability of the non-stealth aircraft to break through advanced air defense networks in the future. If France also develops Rafale's escort electronic warfare aircraft versions such as EA-18 Growler and Eurofighter ECR, which will further enhance Rafale's survivability in SEAD / DEAD missions. Then, Rafale will attract the attention of many countries, and the possibility of overseas sales will increase even more before the FCAS launch.
The Rafale doesn't need the the Typhoon's ECR upgrades or the Growler.
It is capable of SEAD/DEAD on its own.
Of course, Rafale's ability to perform SEAD/DEAD using Spectra+hammer is still very strong. But in the future advanced air defense environment, that may not be enough. If Rafale has a dedicated wide-area attack jamming pod with powerful power, anti-radar missiles, and decoys, Rafale will become more powerful in the future. Currently, France does not own these. The French anti-radar missile was retired in 1998 without a successor. The attached document also highlights that point. See pages 32-41. In fact, according to the document, France raised the need several times to create an attack jamming pod apart from Spectra, but this has not been realized. Rafale will probably need this in the future.
Les armées françaises face aux menaces anti-aériennes de nouvelle génération
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The Rafale has all the EW capability needed already. The only thing missing is low band jamming and that will come through pods, which is the case for all aircraft, since the antennas needed are big.
France experimented with many of these things you mentioned through the Mirage program and later gave it up because the Rafale superceded these capabilities.
As for ARM, it's not necessary since the Hammer is much more accurate for the role while the aircraft provides the targeting necessary. In the future, a Hammer-like solution will be used for SEAD/DEAD by other air forces, for example the British plan to use SPEAR 3 with their F-35s.
Do hammer have the capability to perform radar homing?
And do we have any home grown plan to develope hammer type powered bomb units?
If the RAF had the option, the AARGM-ER would have been preferred over Spear 3. The F-35B is currently unable to operate the AARGM-ER. India has also developed its own ARM RUDRAM. Compared to ARM, the hammer has no radar homing capability and lacks a range, so it is insufficient in terms of survivability. If Rafale has its own ARM, it is much safer to perform SEAD operations over long ranges.
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And what are the options to choose from?
@kor4116 has rightly brought that issue. It’s always better to have options
Does it have ARMs compatibility?The Rafale has no problem doing SEAD/DEAD at short range.
And what are the options to choose from?
@kor4116 has rightly brought that issue. It’s always better to have options
Although it's safer to do anything at long range, the main goal is to kill the SAM site, and this is best done effectively at short range.
The problem is the kill probability of ARMs is very low, even lower than BVR missiles, since SAMs tend to turn off their radars and disappear. So the longer the range you engage a SAM site, the greater the chance for the SAM to initiate countermeasures.
It has always been a good idea to kill SAMs at short range, which is actually the point of having stealth in the first place. And with the Hammer, you get a very short reaction time and a near-100% kill ratio.
Most countries are working on ARMs right now, including India, because most air forces do not have stealth aircraft. The F-22 does not use HARMs for SEAD/DEAD, it uses SDB I, and the Hammer is far, far more advanced than the SDB I since the Hammer is powered and has a seeker. Basically, what I'm saying is with 5th gen capability, you do not need the low success capabilities like long range ARMs.
Rafale has stealthy capabilities and its Hammer does the same job as the SDB does for the F-22.
Currently, only the F-22, F-35 and Rafale are capable of performing SEAD/DEAD at short range. And right now, because of the Hammer, only the Rafale is capable of performing SEAD/DEAD at the shortest range in certain cases. It's because the Rafale can fire the Hammer without line of sight, whereas the F-22's and F-35's SDBs require line of sight. The Hammer acts as a missile and can climb obstacles using its own power, so the Rafale can fire at a SAM site while hiding. The SPEAR 3 will give the F-35 Hammer-like capabilities in the long run.
SAAW is gonna be upgraded with a seeker and a rocket motor over the next few years. It will be our equivalent of both the StormBreaker and SPEAR 3. Currently, it's like SDB I.
The same is likely to happen with many other PGMs of varying weights.
The Rafale doesn't really need it. But if necessary, our version will obviously carry DRDO's NGARM. As for other air forces, it doesn't matter from our perspective.
There were rumours of the ALARM for the Rafale, which turned out to be fake news.
The only good thing about ARMs is it's a cheap way to force SAM operators to shut down their radars or move away from their position. So other aircraft carrying ARMs can perform that job already, including M2000s for the French. In either case, the SAM operators know they are under attack. But with the Rafale, they won't have any idea when they were targeted until the missiles are right on top of them.
That's the point of having stealth. It's all about finding the most effective way to kill SAMs without being detected.
As you said, it’s cheaper and very effective way to force enemy to switch off its radars in fear of ARM attack.
I brings new ways to do SEAD and DEAD ops
We must integrate our own NGARM (aka Rudram 1) to Rafale and all other platforms for mission flexibility