French Rafale perils

As Greece bought twelve second-hand and six new Rafales, the Armée de l'Air & de l'Espace (French Air and Space Force) is now forced to order a dozen aircraft with Dassault again, before years end. The dozen aircraft are currently part of the AdlAdlE operational inventory and will be sold as agreed as second-hand to Greece. So new aircraft are needed to keep the AdlA strength on the planned number of 102 aircraft.

The French ministry of Defence said: “We intend, by late 2020, to place an order, along with the six for Greece, for twelve Rafales for the AdlA”. The minister continued: “Together we agreed that by 2025, according to the Military Program Law, we would have 129 Rafale aircraft and I fully intend to respect that."

When Greece announced that it would buy eighteen Rafales from France, including twelve used ones, the French government said that each Rafale removed from the French inventory would be replaced and will not impact operations.

The purchase of these new Rafales for the AdlA can not be paid for with the funds Greece will pay for their eighteen aircraft. The Hellenic order is valued “between 1 billion and 2 billion euros”. These funds would technically go directly to the state budget and not to that of the Ministry of Defence. This means that a new battle is underway with the Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Recovery over the transfer of funds to pay for the replacements.

FR24 reports that in addition to this order for twelve Rafales, Dassault Aviation still has 28 aircraft to deliver to France between 2022 and 2024. The twelve new ones would be delivered “immediately after that”, according to the French MoD. And by 2023, the Ministry of the Armed Forces plans to order thirty more to be delivered from 2027.

Please check our extensive Air Order of Battle of the Armée de l'Air & de l'Espace at www.scramble.nl, where you can learn the Rafale disposition within the French Air Force.

Photo: Stephan de Bruijn (kindly provided via AirHistory.net)