Rafale ad: fair comment or darned cheek?

There’s a cheeky ‘Almost/Most’ Rafale ad on pages 76/77 of Flight (7-13 June)

“Rival late generation fighters offer your armed forces almost everything required. They’re almost on budget. They’re almost on schedule. They’re almost ready to fly the full range of missions needed to be truly effective. But what if ‘almost’ isn’t good enough? Omnirole Rafale offers the most versatile, most cost-effective, most technologically evolved military performance available in a late generation fighter today. Rafale. A most welcome alternative to endless promises, and almost endless delays. Rafale. The OMNIROLE fighter”

I had to chuckle. It’s pithy and pointed, and even funny. But is it fair?

Are they seriously claiming that Rafale is on schedule? On budget? That it’s “Ready to fly the full range of missions”?

Really?

I thought it was at least ten years late, and that they’d found a €1.5 Bn hole in the funding?

I thought that the only Rafales in current operational service were the Aéronavale’s F1 standard jets, and that they offer little real improvement over the F-8 Crusader – carrying only Magic, Mica, and a refuelling pod?

I thought that the RAF, the Germans, the Spanish and the Italians all got their single-seat Typhoons before last Friday, when the Armée de l’Air got its first single-seater?

I thought that most of the clever stuff wouldn’t happen unless and until they got an export customer who would help pay for it?

Or are we just talking about different lengths of ‘almost’?