Ok, but that in itself is rather vague. When you say ‘any’ what missions are you specifically referring to that makes the Rafale above and beyond that of other contemporary aircraft? Yes, I know you’ve used the SEAD ‘LITE’ example, but that’s not really convincing enough. Perhaps you could come up with a matrix with a list of roles and compare this with other aircraft, ticking off the roles which you think the Rafale can perform in standard form, without any changes or extra equipment.
I think omnirole is a marketing term that stems from the fact that the Rafale replaced EVERY warplane in the french inventory. Crusader for navy air defense, Super Etendard for navy strike, Jaguar and Mirage 2000D for ground attack, Mirage F1CR for recon, Mirage 2000C/-5f for air superiority and Mirage 2000N for nuclear strike.
Also ANY Rafale can perform any of those missions depending only on loadouts. (and yes loadouts include designation, recon and buddy-buddy refueling pods), without the need to be reconfigured (except for the nuclear role but this is all too natural).
Nic
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