French Rafale 4.1 Upgrades Complete Initial Operational Testing 

You should ask ATEchuet (youtuber), he is a former pilote of Rafale marine on the CDG. He could share with you on this wing. The Rafale can land & take off any US carrier, we have the same catapults & stop lines. The Rafale was imagine since day one to be improve with higher standards.

The Rafale is an absolutely amazing jet to watch displaying at least . Definitely more dynamic, visually at least, than the Typhoon and I’m sorry Viper.

ok to sum it up , rafale 4.1 is the last of the first gen rafales, all previous batches are upgradable to 4.1. From 4.2 structural internal changes mainly due to electrical power generation will be needed therefore previous models won't fit. 4.2 will then be the base of F5 whatever it becomes as it could be just a super rafale or the 6th gen base if the germans keep BS ing us for too long on the NGCF. Then the rafale has the advantage in range, payload weither in weight or hardpoints over same size/gen jets and max G nothing else.It Has the thrust to weight ratio of a legacy hornet, the wing load of an f-15C, the climb rate just under the typhoon and a max 9G pull in normal mode, 11G in No F Given to that padlock mode and a structural limit of 16g. The navy and airforce are exactly the same aircraft appart from the landing/arresting gear wich add 600kg for the navy version and cost one hardpoint making it 13 instead of 14.

The fact France has been the only European country that can do it all themselves should earn them some respect. At least in my eyes

COULD YOU INVITE EX FRENCH NAVY PILOT ATECHUET TO TALK ABOUT RAFALE? HE MAKE VERY GOOD AVIATION VIDEO

Like a lot of other comments: you need to reach out to Ate Chuet. A very knowlegable ex Rafale pilot. He does current war and tech analysis that a very in depth and interesting.

Ridicule the French if you want (hey, I'm British as we do it all the time) but the Rafale is a beautiful aircraft and most importantly, it doesn't contain US hardware and is therefore ITAR-free. Therefore, their sales are going through the roof. Even the Eurofighter Typhoon (which I prefer as a combat aircraft) can't complete with sales. I mean, Dassault have sold over 260 new Rafales (double that of the Typhoons).

Rafale has given the Gripen and Typhoon a beating wvr. It's just simply the best of the 'eurocanards'.

@C.W. Lemoine: each time you bully the French, the joke is on you, because you have French name. So one of your ancestors was French 😂

In addition to all previous comments, i have to say that the Rafale is conceived at start since the drawing board to support seemless hardware upgrades integrations of future technologies (optronics, sensors, avionics, coutermeasures, armament..) throught folowing standards until the conception of a new platform.

Not sure if you're aware of this guy: www.youtube.com/@ATECHUET He flew the Rafale (and Super-Etendard) on Charles-De-Gaulle and he's got some pretty cool youtube stuff on that Some of it in English. He also commented the Rafale/Raptor fight video (in French, not sure if he made an English vid as well). He actually said much the same things you guys noted. Might be worth a look. Cool channel, btw, Mover. Keep up the good work.

With respect to Rafales operating on US carriers. I remember seeing a video of the French airwing conducting training for carrier deck qualifications on the G W Bush in 2018 while the Charles De Gaulle was in refit. And in 2022 Rafales operated on the same carrier in the Mediterranean Sea

Say what you want about the French but don't say they can't make great aircraft.

10:03 : Rafale landed and even where fully operated from US carrier, it was in 2018, Chaesapeak mission. It was to maintain french Naval pilot qualification while Charles de Gaulle was in mid life refit.

of course the french have bars on their ships. gotta love those guys❣

Great comments ! The comments about the engine upgrade is very true, this is something French pilots were asking for, even though the thrust to weight ration in the Rafale is very good, but putting more powerful engines on the Rafale is very challenging because this is a rather small plane, so you can't use bigger engines, they would have to be more efficient for the same size, meaning able to work at higher temperature etc. Right now, for actual operation, this is not the priority. What they are upgrading is far more important and will increase the capacity of the Rafale in very hostile environments; note that the F4 standard is also able to carry 8 air to air missiles instead of 6 in the previous version. The Rafale ergonomic is very good with a great pilot-machine interface, this allows for very long and extremely diverse missions. The radar is being upgraded, as well as the optronic and the electronic warfare systems. Regarding marine Rafale, remember that they have to operate on a very small aircraft carrier compared to the US ones, so for French pilots, landing/operating from a US carrier is less challenging than the reverse.

Rafale has a similar thrust/ weight ratio to the legacy Hornet, but Rafale has better aerodynamic. Rafale can perform M1.4 with one supersonic tank and AA missiles without after burner. Rafale had L16 from the beginning. Rafale F4 standard is adding better sensors, satellite coms and link, the ability to share Meteor (long range Fox 3 missile) guidance between jets, sharing SPECTRA (built in ECM system) data to locate threat faster and more accurately (keeping in mind that one Rafale can already do that on its own).

Definitely a good looking jet.

Requesting audio of Mover doing sustained 9G, for reference..

Dassault makes good fighters and bizjets!

This article is about the F4 standard in the air and space force, but in the French Navy the two air wings have already been operating the F4 standard since last summer.

Started flying old D Falcons about 20 years ago. 3 types and couldn’t be more impressed. They did most of their work with aerodynamics, not power. Amazing runway performance, agility and control feel. It’s was like cutting steak with a surgeon’s scalpel and those Boeing and Gulfstreams are like cutting it with a hammer.

Around 2010 the Charles DeGaugh went through an extended refueling, four years. The French having just 1 carrier worked with the US to maintain pilot and crew expertise. Pretty cool. And, the French carrier needs refueling every 7 years.

Well, Rafale F4, Typhoon Tranche 4 and 5, are/will be the best 4.5 gen fighters on the market. More capable of f16 block 70 and f15 EX.

DO YOU KNOW YOUR NAME "LEMOINE" IS FRENCH? ("THE MONK")

I'm not sure if you guys have already done a show with him, but this guy is an ex Rafale pilot and like you guys has a youtube channel where he discusses military issues, he speaks perfect English and also does DCS, just thought it might be interesting to see you guys interract : www.youtube.com/@ATECHUET/videos

The short little catapults(246ft) on the Charles de Gaulle impart 4 to 5 g's to the aircraft where as the American super carriers with much longer cat's(310ft) do around 3 to 4 g's. I don't know if American jets are rated for that violent a launch. The French Navy aircraft may have nose gear and it's attachment to the fuselage built to handle the extra G force of the short cat.

There's some footage of F 18s in CHarles De Gaulle landing and trapping the hook in the arrestor cable

Rafale looks like a spaceship stuck in atmosphere.

These gen 4.5+ fighters are starting to feel a bit like the "superprops" at the end of WWII and early 50s/Korean war. They're definitely lacking the feature that will define future aircraft but they push the previous generations technology to a highly optimized limit and end up being exceedingly useful, The A-1 Skyraider was flying well into the Vietnam war and successfully executing ground attack missions that the F-4 or F-105 would struggle to do.

French Navy Pilot are Trained in the US and do the same cursus as US navy Pilot. The Charles De Gaule Actually uses US made catapults, Traps and Landing system.

The Rafale is a pretty impressive aircraft if Wikipedia is accurate. It is smaller than both the Super Hornet and Strike Eagle, yet it's payload on external hardpoints is right in between the two. While also having the least amount of thrust. I'm surprised they haven't upgraded the engines to M88-4/4E yet.

French Navy Rafales did trap and launch from USN carriers .

de Gaulle is CATOBAR, which is probably why Rafale is compatible with USN carrier ops

A glimpse into Gonky's early years... "Nuh uh! I don't bully the French! MOM!! MOVER SAID I BULLY THE FRENCH!!"

the front wheel of the rafale M (for the aircraft carrier) is bigger and stronger than the other rafale models, If I remember

Former fighter pilot's first comment is how cool it looks. Love it. The French do make purdy aircraft.

Besides the French Navy, which other Navy is qualified to land its jet fighters on US carriers?

The US should build some Rafale or Gripen for use as aggressors in training. Delta wing with canard fighters are quite common now including the PLA with the J-10C. Thus it is a relevant capability to train against. It also is a relatively cost effective way to train short to medium range tactics with an agile platform as aggressor. Could replace the F-5 and old variants of F-16s used right now in that role.

A bunch of online articles speak about this online, the french navy’s fleet is upgraded go the F3R version wich is the standard now in the french Air force, and it will be upgraded to later versions like the rest of the fleet! In terms of software update thé rafale was thought to be modular from the drawing boards, so there wont be any significant weight changes with theses updates ! The navy M version is some hundred kilos heavier due to the reinforced gear

Thanks sir for such kind of discussion on air force because we are air force lover

Do know if you guys saw it, but according to an article in ISS the Rafale is now selling like hotcakes. So much so the demand is outstripping production its become a problem for Dassault. Its rather funny because when Rafale came out nobody wanted them, now they cant make them fast enough.

Mirage 2000 has the best turn rate curves of all times... of course this means nothing since it is without storage, but given its smallish engine, it is quite something.

AFAIK the Rafale F5 will be a new design, larger in size, similar to the Super Hornet. So far Rafales have been able to be upgraded to the latest version, but that will end with the F4 and its subversions. They've reached a limit where they need more space to add new features. I just hope the engines keep up - they've always been a bit underpowered compared to, say, the Eurofighter.

time ago i found out from a retired spanish navy Harrier driver that before flying the Harrier they actually sent them to US and had them train in T-45s doing traps and that was a requirement for being a naval pilot even if it was in the Harrier.. wonder if the french do that as well(wikipedia says they undergo traning with the US Navy)

To clear up the Carrier thing on the Rafale, there are a couple reasons they're allowed on USN carriers. First, the jet was designed to be compatible. Second the jet was carrier certified (initially) by the USN at the Naval test center. (I guess France doesn't have a shore-based carrier deck?) Third, the catapults on the French carriers are purchased from the United States, so it's the same general equipment fitted to a slightly smaller deck. Remember France also flew the F-8 crusader and still flies the E-2. Somewhere on RU-vid there's a video of pilot interviews with the Argentinian pilots flying the super entandard(Spelling?). In that video the pilots mention that they do touch and go's from U.S. carriers when a USN carrier transits the straights of Magellan. This leads me to believe that the French simply have designed their planes to be compatible with USN carriers for many decades. As others have also mentioned the pilots of the French Navy also use USN carriers to keep their certification up when the French CV is on the hard.

SAAB has started initial work on a version of the Gripen E/F with carrier landing capability. I do believe it very important that Europe have competent air frames and the Rafale have higher load capacity and it is great fighter, when we combined these fighters with stealth options like the F-35, we have great strength 🇸🇪❤️🇫🇷

American planes civil or military don't stand à chance in front of french planes, Airbus or Rafales as demonstrated daily by the ridiculous Boeing or F35 debacles

So far as I know the French are still pretty heavily involved (for France) in the Saheel, which is a f'ing quagmire if ever one was. But I don't know if they send Rafale or not (definitely not the N, at any rate). I do know 2000's have been deployed.

Actually , there were french LSO's when the Rafale landed on the US carrier

Not just touch and go, french Rafales landed, then took off from US carriers, and US Super Hornets on the french carrier. On top of a hook, compatibility with the catapult, ie the relatively important capability to take off, might be a prerequisite. Most others not using one such device, but a ramp, i think.

Love u Lemoine from Pakistan🇵🇰❤️🇺🇸Rafale is a very advanced airplane. With Meteor and Scalp it can fulfill any kind of long range Missions. Hope we can get around 24 - 40 F-16V Block 70 from our American allies🇵🇰🇺🇸. PAF must carry out regular exercise with the USAF. Salute again Lemoine🇵🇰🇺🇸😎✌️

and you have to keep in minde that France is doing everything by themselves like A to Z, so they avoid as much as possible to lose knowledge, if everything is available in the first 10 years of the aircraft, then they won't have anything to work on, develop and keep knowledge for the next 30 years and therefore lose all their decades of knowhow and therefore become dependant , so they can't and should not develop too fast

You two are so fricking hilarious.

Upgrade 4.1.(1b) : added auxiliary sulfur hexafluoride to pilot's air supply

Rafale is simply the best jet fighter 🤷‍♂️

Plot twist - Mover is actually one of Dassault’s Chief Test Pilots - his French last name LeMoine (The Monk) is the giveaway! 🇫🇷

That Gonky story at 4:30, just to add Malaysia was very close to procuring the Rafale over the Rhino, simply because it brought an entirely different capability spectrum vs the Hornet family. The deal stalled due to palm trade issues or whatever.

They can operate on our carriers because their carrier is also CATOBAR and use catapults. Which therefore means the Rafale can launch off our carriers. Unlike the skijump carriers where their aircraft don't have the proper equipment to be catapult launched.

Military Aviation History just got to fly Gripen C with Andre Brännström that was on your channel so don't give up!!!

I’m from Croatia, 6 of 12 Rafale jets have been delivered to our air force recently

“It’s a debrief,” lol.

I like the fact that Rafale pilots are allowed to pull 9g in "play" as Gonky put it, the airframe is built to take it without any over-g warnings. In a proper "oh shit!" moment you can pull up to 11g, but then you probably get dirty looks from the techs.

My take away is that the French have bars on their Carrier

It would be a great improvement to add MHD technology to the rafale

things like push time and over the ramp time, could be explained for lay audience like me. I follow defense channels but I don't think these are things many of those folks are familiar with.

Comparing the Rafale with the F-22 is rater unfair, since they are totally different classes of aircraft, comparing it with the F-35 would have been fairer. The Rafale is expected to reach an F7 version by 2040, when it and the EUROFIGHTER are expected to be replaced by a new stealth fighter, currently under development by France, Germany and Spain. There is also the Rafale F5 version that is intended for nuclear strike with the new ASMP supersonic cruise missile that would probably carry a 200 Kt warhead like the current ASMP, but with longer range and better stealth characteristics. Greece also has 24 Rafale F3R, with the intension of forming a second squadron and these are a game changer against even the latest versions of the F-16. Also the Hellenic Air Force celebrates the 50 years of its F-4E Phantom II aircraft, the longest serving aircraft in HAF history. Currently there are 33 F-4s still in service, to be replaced by 20 + 20 F-35As from 2028 onwards. Thirty six Greek F-4s have been modernized in 2000 with new radar and electronics, digital cockpits and new smokeless engines, obtaining the capabilities of the F-18 C/D. This is a HAF video commemorating the 50 years of service of the F-4E: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rnNaH3qwNxk.html

If only that refueling probe would be retractable.

The two seat Rafale, like the two seat Super bug, is super sexy. Very well proportioned. The single seat of both are kinda odd looking.

Hey mover, you gotta checkout the crash of the brand new IAF's LCA Tejas Yesterday

the "HAMER" is a significant munition option.

Rafale is literally a better plane in all aspects than: F16, F15, F18, F35 Only the F22 is better at air to air combat.

Lemoine…🤔 isn’t that a French name?

I think they did not know if the C-130 or U2 would land on a carrier until they didn't. Great show guys!

interestingly the Gripen E is heavier than the old F-16. the new F-16 is about the same weight as the Rafale.

I like(d) The Black Widow, like most cases Politics and Money Rule, The F-35 is it worth the money, put up against The Grippen and the Rafaele 6 x 3 +3

Ha! They were not tired of the Typhoon. They were not allowed to lead the programme. French.

Sounds like someone is trying to wangle a sponsored lesson or two, in a Gripen D, from a flight school.

A German youtuber got the chance, by SAAB, to fly a Gripen C recently (Military Aviation History). I am Swedish and think that you both, Mover and Gonky, should get the chance to fly it too! You would perhaps be less awed by the Gripen due to your more extensive experience in flying fighter planes. But your opinions would carry some more weight on the other hand and give more credibility than popular claims and opions about the Gripen. In the end it is the uninformed mass of people that pays for these machines and need to hear informed opinions. Unfortunately, I have no influence whatsoever on this.

Peut-il faire un tonneau

Ok but Rafale 5 will have drown wing AI control tech. & superior situational awareness com. Like Jas Gripen . Modern MRF will dominate air battle in 2030-2040.

🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩💪👍

The 4.1 is also known as "Le Weekend" special edition, with improved IRST, and a new HD targeting pod, replacing the old VGA effort. To allow drivers to spot a BBQ at 20 miles, and film the Col's pool party, he denied he was holding, in HD, rather than EGA. If the Wife or Special Friend are spotted (may they never meet) at the non party, there's a new 1t Party Pooper option. They've also succumbed to all the cold calls, and the old 20 MBit, at best, copper connectivity, has been replaced will full fibre. As has the entertainment system, allowing for many a digital podcast, and cat video to be streamed, rather than being limited to a few local French VHF channels. To further improve the experience you get a US Navy lid (from the F/A-18E), with headphones and eyewear. To look even cooler the air-con has been improved, as the radar once made life toastie. All for just €9,999,999 a month, delivery excluded. 😊

You would need a launch bar as well.

The main thing of the Rafale against Typhoon is the problem to sell it as Germany often refuse export to country due to their pacifist posture. For India the main feature is the refusal of US to allow India nuclear bomb to be carried on the F18 while France allow it on the Rafale.

Wasted Chatter Left at5.46

SERBIA BOUGHT 12 F4.1 FOR 3 BILION DOLARS

Looking at that Russian IL 76. Hey that alora wing to burn through, so i am an engineer not i a pilot, and if my co -pilot days hey boss we got number 4 smoking like as mover would say "Like a big dog out there" o'd say hey I am shutting that thing down and pulling the fire retardant handles, just on that one engine, i would expect him to then say hey we are leaking or that a piece of Russia just dropped off, i wouldn't be low as heck banking like my life depended on it and gunning the other three engines I would try to fly straight check my hydraulics, fuel pressure and flow and the say Blyat that the last time Ivan drinks last time i got lightened by Ivan it was the tail section this time it no 4 engine, so i raise the other 3 engines to 97 percent power, hey this is Russian jet every thing will be OK, turn to the hostess and say cancel the younger kids flying in the cockpit tradition Ivan hit the bottle again, then i would slowly climb on three engines. If i lost three engines i would ring Ivan up and say you and birds are going to hell my friend but your first if i survive this, shut up Ivan i must fly your mums sweet potato pie has too much sugar blyat,, Ivan stay away from my sister you and me Ivan you and me, very soon its gonna be you and me and talking , then Ivan says I will be not going to lick your ass like in the old days when you took your school dinner money, "Ivan goodbye " Hey stay away from my sister im serious Ivan !!!!

In defense of that French pilot making all those straining sounds while fighting the Raptor, maybe he had too many baguettes & bouillabaisse before the flight & they werent sitting right?

You mean, the French had a "feminine" g strain expression? :D

Wouldn't you need to be capable to do catapult takeoff to land on a US carrier? Well, not to land but to get airborne again? The French and British use ramp assisted take off, no?

I.m’really surprise about ur feu knoledge about the rafale. Get out of ur box.

Mover ruins the Rafale. 😁

The Rafale looks like a Gripen, so who copied who ?

Tout ça ça ne vaut pas un F-35.

Rafale is anexcellent 4th gen fighter, but it is not the absolute best fighter. Rafale fans just act as if the Rafale is the absolute best and literally can beat anything.

"Tired of messing around with the Typhoon" more like France (DA) absolutely had to have the lead 😅

white flags Beyond visual range

Gripen destroyed the Rafale.

please invite retired rafale navy pilot @ATECHUET to discuss wtih you