Worth fighting for

The French air force

gears up for the
Dassault Rafale, a
crucial factor in the
service's future.
GILBERT SEDBON/PARIS

urope "...must close ranks and build

together, and we must act together,"
says Gen Jean-Philippe Douin, the
French air force's new chief of staff,
as he sets out his agenda both for European
defence and industry collaboration.
Douin took over the reins of the French air
force from Gen Vincent Lanata on 1 July. Like
his predecessor, he is a vociferous supporter of
the Dassault Rafale fighter-bomber programme
and of the European Future Large Aircraft
(FLA) the Avion de Transport Futur (ATF).
Douin is candid about the obvious importance of the Rafale to the air force and of the
need for a substantial follow-on order to those
already placed.
Douin sees the Rafale as the backbone of the
French air force for the next 50 years, comparing it to the US Air Force's joint advanced
strike-technology aircraft in importance.
Rafales will replace the air force's existing
combat fleet, starting with the Sepecat Jaguar
and ending with the Dassault Mirage 2000.
The aircraft is intended to carry out no
fewer than seven missions, from intelligence
and aerial photographic reconnaissance to
nuclear strike, air defence, electronic warfare
and ground attack.
Douin is also adamant that the air force
must have considerably more than the number
ordered, if it is to meet its commitments.
Rafale deliveries to the French air force will
begin at the turn of the century and run up to
the year 2025. A mid-life update programme is
pencilled in to begin around 2010-15, to see
the aircraft through to 2055.
The air force chief says that the service plans
to purchase an extra 200 Rafales, in addition to
the 234 already ordered in a first tranche.
"Altogether, I am buying 400 Rafales
between the years 2000 and 2025, to form the
20 squadrons of 20 aircraft each agreed for our
fleets," he says.
The first batch will have a standard configuration, with Thomson-CSF/Dassault Electronique RBE2 electronic-scanning fire-control
radar and Matra Mica and other weapons.

The Rafale is the shape of things to come for the French airforce
Beyond this, Douin pencils in a mid-life
update, with the aircraft "...becoming the
Rafale new-generation in 2012-15, taking on
weapons developed with new-century technology for operational service in 2025 and continuing until 2050".
To have 380 front-line combat aircraft (a
policy decision taken some time ago) the air
force should order roughly 450 aircraft, including an attrition purchase. That means that an
order for 200 Rafales must be placed in addition to the 234 already ordered, says Douin.
KEY PROCUREMENT

A fleet of 234 Rafales corresponds to 180

front-line combat aircraft 60 single-seaters
and 120 twin-seaters. "That is by no means
what we're aiming at," says Douin. "We need
to reach the 380 front-line combat aircraft
strength," he adds.

In 2012, the last Rafale of the present

tranche of 234 will come off the assembly line.
Douin says that an additional 200 aircraft
should be manufactured between 2012 and
2022, at a rate of around 20 a year, to meet the
air force's requirement.
It is also at this point, considers Douin, that
research-and-development funding for a followon aircraft should be made available. He is in no
doubt that the Rafale's successor will have to be
developed and produced by France, Germany
and the UK in a joint European effort.
Should a follow-on order not be forthcoming, then the air force will find itself lining up
only 180 front-line combat aircraft. By 2012,
30 years after the arrival of the first basicMirage 2000, Douin explains, the air force will
be losing one squadron of ageing Mirage
2000s every year.
Douin, a Mirage fighter pilot with more than
FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 14 - 20 December 1994