Know Your 'Rafale'

BON PLAN

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Since French cannot make their own ejection seats:
INDIA RECEIVES BATCH OF RAFALE FIGHTERS FITTED WITH MARTIN-BAKER MK.16 EJECTION SEATS
The Indian Air Force (IAF) Dassault Aviation Rafale aircraft left Merignac in Southwest France on 27th July and are expected to land at Ambala Air Base in India on 29th July after a brief pit-stop in the UAE.

The Indian Air Force and Navy account for 1,013 Martin-Baker Ejection Seats in service today, making India Martin-Baker’s 2nd largest global customer. India currently operates Mk.4, Mk.9, Mk.10, Mk.11 and Mk.16 Ejection Seats, in service in the HJT-16, Jaguar, Mirage, Hawk, PC-7 MkII, Tejas, HJT-36 and now Rafale aircraft.




???
The french Rafale are made with the Mk F16F seat (with a F like "French ). It is made in france by SEMBB, a french subsidiary of Martin Baker. So it is french made, under a GB licence.

 
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BON PLAN

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A news in french, where it is confirmed a successful fire of ASTRA from Tejas.
AND... that the next bird to be fitted with ASTRA will be Rafale.

 

BON PLAN

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ASTRA and other indian weapons on Rafale are good news.
- Good news for India, to become fully independant in term of weaponery. No more risk of degraded capacity seeing on some export weapons (as AMRAAM sell to non 5 eyes customer...)
- Good news for export customers to have access to another range of weapons, probably cheaper, and reacting defferently to electronic countermeasures.
 

Wisemarko

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ASTRA and other indian weapons on Rafale are good news.
- Good news for India, to become fully independant in term of weaponery. No more risk of degraded capacity seeing on some export weapons (as AMRAAM sell to non 5 eyes customer...)
Yes no more backstabbing by French like they did to Argentina in the Falklands war. Imagine Russians sabotaging BrahMos during conflict with China! That’s exactly what French did to Argentina. Never trust anyone blindly.
27AC3564-8817-4FD4-9175-F09ADE8ED371.jpeg
 

MirageBlue

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Our experience with the French has been quite different.

The country that has back stabbed India multiple times was the USA, not France. It was the USA that threatened India while a genocide was being perpetrated by it's ally Pakistan in Bangladesh (East Pakistan). It was the US which sent a carrier battle group to threaten India with an attack in 1971.

It was the USA which did little to prevent Pakistan from getting nuclear bomb designs from China in the 1970s, as well as nuclear capable missiles like the M-11 from China and Nodong series missiles from North Korea, it was the USA which armed the Pakis with F-16s that were modified to carry nukes. It was the US which repeatedly put pressure on India not to conduct nuclear tests, despite the threat that India faced from China which already had hundreds of nukes. It was the US which sanctioned India after the nuclear tests and set us back by several years as a result in multiple weapons programs.

With the French there hasn't been a single incident of such kind. They've sold to Pakistan but never preached anything opposite to us. They've made money where possible, but haven't actively sabotaged programs the way the US did. In that respect, they're the ideal supplier to India, along with Israel.

Russia has been disappointing for many reasons, but they never looked to harm India's interests directly. The USA has in the past done so.
 

BON PLAN

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Yes no more backstabbing by French like they did to Argentina in the Falklands war. Imagine Russians sabotaging BrahMos during conflict with China! That’s exactly what French did to Argentina. Never trust anyone blindly.
View attachment 220178
You just forget that GB, as USA and Canada are very strong allies.
We never forget that we are free thanks to them during ww2.
It would have been just impossible not to help a so strong and precious ally in this particular situation.

In the Indian case, no such history. France was among the very few that didn't take measures after your nuclear experiences. We help India to fast track equip M2000 with laser bombs to destroy bunkers in Kargil. Where was russia then? where were the USA?
Don't forget that also.
 

Wisemarko

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You just forget that GB, as USA and Canada are very strong allies.
We never forget that we are free thanks to them during ww2.
It would have been just impossible not to help a so strong and precious ally in this particular situation.

In the Indian case, no such history. France was among the very few that didn't take measures after your nuclear experiences. We help India to fast track equip M2000 with laser bombs to destroy bunkers in Kargil. Where was russia then? where were the USA?
Don't forget that also.
Sure.. mmmmm hmmmm
 

karn

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You just forget that GB, as USA and Canada are very strong allies.
We never forget that we are free thanks to them during ww2.
It would have been just impossible not to help a so strong and precious ally in this particular situation.

In the Indian case, no such history. France was among the very few that didn't take measures after your nuclear experiences. We help India to fast track equip M2000 with laser bombs to destroy bunkers in Kargil. Where was russia then? where were the USA?
Don't forget that also.
It is true that France did not support our isolation after nuclear test and was the only western country to encourage normalising relations with us and for that and some more we do trust the France more than the rest ..
However the laser guided bombs as well as the targetting pod on the mirage 2000 were Israeli. Another country we happen to trust lol.
 

BON PLAN

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However the laser guided bombs as well as the targetting pod on the mirage 2000 were Israeli.
Impossible to adapt foreign weapons on a digital aircraft without the manufacturer's autorization.
In this case Dassault, and the french government, agree but gave some help to fast track this accomodation.
 

BON PLAN

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Rafale production level will grow fastly to 2/month.
Dassault already checked the components suppliers to go to 3/month
 

Blademaster

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Purchase of only option left since F-35 is not offered
This is a good opportunity for the GoI to have the Saudis buy into the AMCA program and secure funding. This way the IAF gernails won't try to derail this AMCA project.
 

BON PLAN

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Purchase of only option left since F-35 is not offered
In fact not : Greece, UAE.
The F35 purchase is not a fighter purchase, but a part of the USA umbrella purchase. A king of pizzo to be protected in case of.
 

BON PLAN

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This is a good opportunity for the GoI to have the Saudis buy into the AMCA program and secure funding. This way the IAF gernails won't try to derail this AMCA project.
Good idea, but unfortunately India is not recognised yet as a first rank fighter producer.
India will not invest in it until it is a mature product.
 

Wisemarko

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In fact not : Greece, UAE.
The F35 purchase is not a fighter purchase, but a part of the USA umbrella purchase. A king of pizzo to be protected in case of.
Who said F-35 is offered to UAE? Greece is buying F-35. Purchase of Rafale is not a purchase but corruption of buying nations.
 

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