Vietnam Individuals’s Air Power pilots are confirmed to have not too long ago test-flown the French Rafale fighter plane, with analysts broadly assessing that this means talks on a potential procurement of the plane have reached superior phases. This follows experiences from French media retailers in February that the French authorities has made concerted efforts to market the Rafale in an try to interrupt into a brand new market that has lengthy been dominated by Russian army gear. The Rafale is reportedly being thought of to exchange Vietnam’s fleet of roughly 30 Su-22 third technology strike fighters, with the sale of two dozen of the fighters being mentioned.
Efforts to market the Rafale comply with sustained efforts by the USA to market its F-16 Block 70/72 fighter to Vietnam, as each NATO members search to cut back Russia’s market share in a rustic. Though the Rafale has constantly misplaced when competing in tenders towards the U.S. F-16, F-15 and F-35, the French fighter has the benefit of a lot grater ranges of autonomy, since the USA imposed very strictly controls on how its fighters could be utilised and gives no vital entry to supply codes. However, the extent of autonomy Vietnam may have working the Rafale can be far decrease than what it has been used to working Soviet and Russian fighters over the previous 60 years, with France confirmed to have embedded kill switches into its excessive performing aerial warfare methods, together with cruise missiles, since a minimum of the Nineteen Seventies. The Rafale’s weaponry together with SCALP cruise missiles additionally rely closely on the U.S. GPS for steering, which means they are often disabled from the USA.
The Rafale’s competitiveness has constantly been known as to query, with the plane shedding each tender wherein it has competed towards superior U.S. or Russian fighter sorts. Algeria, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia, for instance, all favoured the Russian Su-30 or Su-35 over the Rafale. The French fighter has thus largely relied on competing in markets which for political causes have sought to keep away from Russian and Chinese language gear, whereas additionally both being denied entry to superior U.S. fighters or in search of higher autonomy than the U.S. is prepared to offer. Notable examples have included Indonesia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and India, all of which have confronted Western strain and at instances sanctions threats to not procure Russian and Chinese language fighter sorts, however have been denied entry to the F-35 and struggled with the shortage of autonomy allowed for the F-15, F-16 and F-18.
The Rafale not too long ago noticed its first excessive depth fight engagement in early Might 2025, when the Indian Air Power operated it towards Pakistani forces, ensuing within the losses down of between one and 4 of the plane to Pakistan’s Chinese language-supplied J-10C fighters. This triggered pubic relations catastrophe for each Indian Defence Ministry and the fighter program. As Vietnam faces territorial disputes with China, which fields innovative fifth technology fighters with capabilities far surpassing these of the J-10C and can from the early 2030s area sixth technology fighters, the Rafale’s skill to offer a viable defence stays extremely questionable.
Within the face of ongoing tensions with a number of nations within the Western world, the Rafale stays weak to arms embargoes and the distant disabling of its focusing on methods, whereas additionally being much more pricey and fewer succesful than rival U.S. and Russian fighter sorts. Regardless of its efficiency limitations, the French fighter could also be favoured for political causes as a automobile to safe continued Western funding and offshoring of producing, sending a sign that it isn’t aligned with Russia. If procured, the Rafale’s restricted air-to-air capabilities, comparatively brief vary, and small radar, imply it will seemingly be relied on primarily as a strike fighter to exchange the Soviet Su-22 fleet, whereas the Russian Su-57 fifth technology fighter which is at the moment deliberate for procurement within the early 2030s could be relied on to exchange the Su-27 and Su-30 as premier lengthy vary air superiority platforms. A major argument towards procuring the Rafale, nevertheless, stays that the Su-57 just isn’t solely considerably less expensive, but additionally extremely succesful as a strike fighter with a for much longer vary, stealth capabilities, and a a lot wider number of superior cruise missiles which have been fight examined underneath rather more strenuous situations within the Ukrainian theatre.
