When Western European powers were working on the Eurofighter Typhoon, France was working on its own aircraft, and their involvement in building aircraft since the end of WWII and the beginning of the Cold War gave them the capability to build the 4.5 generation Dassault Rafale.
Rafael is regarded as one of the best fighters in the world in the medium multirole capability category. As a result, the Indian Air Force purchased 36 Rafale fighters in 2015, with the last arriving in 2022.
It’s rafale, not rafael. Means wind burst btw. You can convincingly blame autocorrect on this one though
On a slightly related note, I sort of hope the IAF tries another skirmish with PAF.
Last time (2019), they allegedly didn’t have any rafales operational in that area, and PAF had an upper hand in using their F-16s with AMRAAMs.
And PAF said the Rafale didn’t match up to their needs with the F-16 when they did a test fly.
But then they also bought J-10s which I would argue is even worse.
So now it’s an airforce WWE event waiting to happen lol.
