StealthFlanker
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Levcon/ Canard are basically very similar to LERX on aircraft. Their purpose is to increase lift at AoA because the vortex help prevent flow separation.Generally, any carrier based fighter which has Levcon/ Canard will have an advantage in short take off. Canard will help fighter to reduce landing speed. This sort of designs are more suitable for carriers particularly like us which are shorter in length compared to US carriers. After burner thrust is also very important to carrier based fighters compared to airforce fighters as the afterburner thrust helps in short take off. This factors becomes less important in huge carriers like the carriers of US.
While both Rafale and F-18E/F have lift increasing device, one advantage that F-18 has is the wing sweep angle. The lesser the sweep angle, the more lift can be created at a given AoA. So F-18 can land at very slow speed. Of course, this also come with a cost, the high swept angle of Rafale make it more effecient at high speed (better acceleration and cruise speed)