Dassault Rafale – Underestimated?

Along with the Super Hornet, I think the Rafale is a very underestimated aircraft. Many comparisons are made between it and the Typhoon, with almost all respondents putting the Typhoon ahead (with the proposed Meteor as one common reason for the Typhoon’s supposed superiority, forgetting that the Rafale can also be armed with the Meteor).
It is well understood that the Rafale has an extremely capable electronic warfare suite, it’s avionics are very good, the RBE2 is comparable to the ECR90 in performance, with only the APG-77 having a distinct advantage over it, and the SPECTRA system seems to be quite an amazingly powerful electronic self-protection system. The SPECTRA can handle electromagnetic detection, laser warning, IR detection, missile launch/approach warning, jamming and chaff/flare launching. SPECTRA also provides passive long-range detection, indentification and location of threads and can automatically react or alert the pilot to threats.
The Thomson CSF/Detexis RBE2 is a passive array employing electronic scanning. RBE2 is very beam agile, and data processors are capable of performing well over 1 billion operations per second. It is quoted with a range in excess of 100km, and has a-a, a-g, dogfight and terrain following modes.
The only area where i feel the Rafale loses out over the Typhoon is that the Dassault product is slightly underpowered. This should be rectified with the M88-3 proposed for export models though…
What are your thoughts on the Rafale? Btw, it also has to be one of the best looking planes out there, but then again, when have the French made an fighter?

http://members.optushome.com.au/mschew/rafale01.jpg

MinMiester