Rafale in Croatian Air Force

[Picard]

Croatia Received Its First Rafale

Official transfer ceremony of the first Croatian Rafale was held today. Croatia is the last NATO member state to still use MiG-21 fighter aircraft, and procurement of Rafale has essentially upgrade…

warviews.wordpress.com

Official transfer ceremony of the first Croatian Rafale was held today. Croatia is the last NATO member state to still use MiG-21 fighter aircraft, and procurement of Rafale has essentially upgraded Croatian multirole fighter fleet by two generations.

While the aircraft is now officially Croatian property, it will be – along with the other five Rafales of the first batch – be delivered to Croatian Air Force in first quarter of 2024. Remaining aircraft will be delivered in early 2025.

Croatian government decided on Rafale acquisition on 28 May 2021, and on 25 November 2021 the technical agreement and three agreements with companies Dassault Aviation, MBDA France and Safran Electronic & Defense, with payment to be made in installments from 2021 to 2026. Overall value of these agreements is 999 068 463 €, that is 1 152 496 307 € with estimated expenses of indexation of prices and VAT. Financial resources will be provided in budget of Ministry of Defense. A total of 12 Rafale F3-R aircraft are being acquired, of which 10 Rafale C (single-seater) and 2 Rafale B (twin-seater), in the same standard as used by the French Air Force (AdlA). Along with the aircraft also comes flight simulator which will enable complete training as well as validation of tactics, ground and test equipment, reserve parts and complete manufacturer support. Overall support is agreed upon until the last quartal of 2026, as well as 12-month guarantee per each delivered aircraft, engine, piece of equipment and spare part.

According to usage projections by MORH, acquisition of these Rafales will suffice for the next 30 or more years. Operational usage of Rafales in the French Air Force is planned until 2060.

 

[Tshering22]

Croatia Received Its First Rafale

Official transfer ceremony of the first Croatian Rafale was held today. Croatia is the last NATO member state to still use MiG-21 fighter aircraft, and procurement of Rafale has essentially upgrade…

warviews.wordpress.com

Official transfer ceremony of the first Croatian Rafale was held today. Croatia is the last NATO member state to still use MiG-21 fighter aircraft, and procurement of Rafale has essentially upgraded Croatian multirole fighter fleet by two generations.

While the aircraft is now officially Croatian property, it will be – along with the other five Rafales of the first batch – be delivered to Croatian Air Force in first quarter of 2024. Remaining aircraft will be delivered in early 2025.

Croatian government decided on Rafale acquisition on 28 May 2021, and on 25 November 2021 the technical agreement and three agreements with companies Dassault Aviation, MBDA France and Safran Electronic & Defense, with payment to be made in installments from 2021 to 2026. Overall value of these agreements is 999 068 463 €, that is 1 152 496 307 € with estimated expenses of indexation of prices and VAT. Financial resources will be provided in budget of Ministry of Defense. A total of 12 Rafale F3-R aircraft are being acquired, of which 10 Rafale C (single-seater) and 2 Rafale B (twin-seater), in the same standard as used by the French Air Force (AdlA). Along with the aircraft also comes flight simulator which will enable complete training as well as validation of tactics, ground and test equipment, reserve parts and complete manufacturer support. Overall support is agreed upon until the last quartal of 2026, as well as 12-month guarantee per each delivered aircraft, engine, piece of equipment and spare part.

According to usage projections by MORH, acquisition of these Rafales will suffice for the next 30 or more years. Operational usage of Rafales in the French Air Force is planned until 2060.

Interesting. Has the Croatian public asked what was the need to acquire such costly combat aircraft when cheaper NATO alternatives are available?

I am indicating towards the F/A-18s, F-16s, and the Gripen Es.

A few years ago, there was a huge debate in the Swiss parliament for years regarding jet acquisition, after which the Swiss eventually went with the F-35.

 

[Picard]

Interesting. Has the Croatian public asked what was the need to acquire such costly combat aircraft when cheaper NATO alternatives are available?

Yes. General consensus is "money under the table".

I am indicating towards the F/A-18s, F-16s, and the Gripen Es.

I don't think any of these would be cheaper in the long run. Personally I preferred Gripen C or even A.

A few years ago, there was a huge debate in the Swiss parliament for years regarding jet acquisition, after which the Swiss eventually went with the F-35.

Yeah... talk about fixing a mistake by making even worse one.

 

[Picard]

Croatian Rafale – Number 101 to Number 170

Croatia had received its first Rafale multirole fighter aircraft at the ceremony in the French Air Force (Armee de l’Air) base Mont-de-Marsan. After more than three decades of using MiG-21 fi…

defenseissues.wordpress.com

Croatia had received its first Rafale multirole fighter aircraft at the ceremony in the French Air Force (Armee de l’Air) base Mont-de-Marsan. After more than three decades of using MiG-21 fighters, arrival of Rafale means entering the new era of supersonic aviation.

 

[Blademaster]

Croatian Rafale – Number 101 to Number 170

Croatia had received its first Rafale multirole fighter aircraft at the ceremony in the French Air Force (Armee de l’Air) base Mont-de-Marsan. After more than three decades of using MiG-21 fi…

defenseissues.wordpress.com

Croatia had received its first Rafale multirole fighter aircraft at the ceremony in the French Air Force (Armee de l’Air) base Mont-de-Marsan. After more than three decades of using MiG-21 fighters, arrival of Rafale means entering the new era of supersonic aviation.

What are you talking about? MiG-21 had a top speed of Mach 2. Its a pure interceptor fighter. You can't go supersonic in your own country due to your country's size (rather the lack of).

 

[Picard]

What are you talking about? MiG-21 had a top speed of Mach 2. Its a pure interceptor fighter. You can't go supersonic in your own country due to your country's size (rather the lack of).

"New era of supersonic aviation" as in "new era of history", NOT "new era entering supersonic aviation".

 

[RocketMan]

"New era of supersonic aviation" as in "new era of history", NOT "new era entering supersonic aviation".

Croatia has a long coastline too . Are any of these jets equipped with anti-ship weapons & are they equipped with MBDA Meteor BVRAAM ?

 

[Picard]

Croatia has a long coastline too . Are any of these jets equipped with anti-ship weapons & are they equipped with MBDA Meteor BVRAAM ?

No confirmation on Meteor either way.

As for anti-ship, we get SCALP EG and AM-39 Exocet.

 

[Picard]

Summary from Croatian media:

Dassault Rafale in Croatia

First six Croatian Rafales entered Croatia on noon of 25th April 2024. With their arrival ended the 32 year era of MiG-21s in Croatian Air Force, and from this moment Rafales took over protection o…

defenseissues.wordpress.com

 

[Picard]

Croatia has a long coastline too . Are any of these jets equipped with anti-ship weapons & are they equipped with MBDA Meteor BVRAAM ?

Well, I have answer. From my article:

Dassault Rafale in Croatia

First six Croatian Rafales entered Croatia on noon of 25th April 2024. With their arrival ended the 32 year era of MiG-21s in Croatian Air Force, and from this moment Rafales took over protection o…

defenseissues.wordpress.com

Croatian Rafales are of the FR3 standard and are equipped in the same way as the French aircraft. This includes weaponry such as SCALP EG cruise missile with range of 560 kilometers, AM 39 Exocet anti-ship missile with range of 80 kilometers, MICA IR/RF air-to-air missiles with range of 80 kilometers and MBDA Meteor air-to-air missile with range of 200 kilometers.

 

[Picard]

A look at history of Croatian procurement process which resulted in Rafale acquisition:

Croatian Procurement of Dassault Rafale

This article will provide an overview of Croatian acquisition process which resulted in acquisition of Rafales. It is essentially a summary of MORH (Croatian Ministry of Defense) reports. 2020 9-9-…

warviews.wordpress.com