I think the main problem with Rafale is that it was designed to meet a specific French requirement to operate off their carrier, so it probably doesn’t match up particularly well when compared against the heavier, larger and more capable Eurofighter that it has to compete against for export orders.
Then you could explain us why the eurofighter only managed to be exported when there wasn’t an open contest and it had not to confront other fighers (Saudi arabia, Austria).
In all open contests where the 2 planes were involved (Netherland, Korea and Singapore) the eurofighter was rated lower than the rafale. So, you just can’t say that the rafale match up worse than the eurofighter…it’s even the opposite as far as those 3 contests are concerned.
In fact there are several factors to take into acount :
– a very low dollar rate : US hardware is now 40% cheaper than it used to be just because of that
– Very agressive US (political level) and russian (price level) policy
– New agressive competitors : eurofighter gmbh, Israel (for subsystems), and Gripen international.
– A limited offer compared to USA and russia… no plane to compete with the gripen and the F-16.
– Clumsy and slow administration (as seen in Morrocco)
– 10 years too late on the maket
– no amraam (you have to buy the twice expensive mica)
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