Picard
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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…
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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.