CEO of the French aerospace agency Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier has highlighted the potential of Rafale ‘4+ era’ fighters being equipped to the Republic of China Air Power (RoCAF). Talking earlier than the French Nationwide Meeting on September 24, Trappier highlighted that these might be equipped to interchange the service’s ageing Mirage 2000 fourth era fighters ought to the French authorities present a inexperienced gentle. “The Mirage 2000 is reaching the tip of its service life. It’s nonetheless flying in France, however it can quickly cease as a result of we have to transition fully to Rafale. That is additionally true for all our export purchasers, who’re transferring from the Mirage 2000 to the Rafale,” he acknowledged. The service procured 60 Mirage 2000-5 jets beneath a 20 billion Franc contract nearly 30 years in the past, in parallel to procurements of 140 F-16A/B fighters from the USA, and indigenous F-CK plane.
Though the RoCAF assessed the F-16 to be a extra succesful plane, the choice to obtain the Mirage 2000 was largely motivated by a have to keep away from over reliance on the USA and domesticate a wider vary of strategic partnerships. Whereas Taipei has continued to assert to be the only authorities of your entire Chinese language nation, in addition to the professional authorities of Mongolia, it has no recognition on the United Nations and isn’t recognised by the overwhelming majority of UN member states together with the USA and France, which has restricted each nations’ willingness to produce superior armaments. This reluctance has remained regardless of excessive tensions between the Individuals’s Republic of China primarily based on the Chinese language mainland, and the Western world, the previous which is presently in a state of civil warfare with the RoC primarily based on Taiwan. Because of this not solely did the Untied States refuse a number of makes an attempt to obtain F-16C/D fighters, supplying solely the downgraded F-16A/B, however efforts by Taipei to order F-35 fifth era fighters have persistently been rebuffed.
With the Republic of China Ministry of Defence having few choices for fighter procurements, and having solely been provided the least succesful present American fighter presently in manufacturing the F-16 Block 70/72, and even these with prolonged delays, there stays a big risk that because the Mirage 2000’s direct successor, the Rafale, could be procured if provided. Alluding to this risk, Trappier knowledgeable lawmakers: “You recognize very nicely what the Taiwanese need. What they need is the Rafale. However that doesn’t rely upon me. I’m not saying that promoting to Taiwan is sweet or unhealthy. That’s not my accountability — it’s the accountability of the state.” He added concerning challenges supporting the Mirage 2000 fleet, which is now all the way down to 52 fighters because of crashes: “Even when the economic dynamics of spare elements and repairs for the Mirage 2000 are barely declining, Dassault Aviation remains to be offering glorious assist for Taiwan’s plane. It is a little more tough than earlier than, however we’re doing it very nicely.”
The Rafale has persistently misplaced all tenders through which it has competed in opposition to the F-35, together with throughout Europe, in addition to in Singapore and South Korea amongst others. Certainly, it has persistently been evaluated to be considerably much less succesful than American ‘4+ era’ F-18E/F, F-15SA/QA, and F-15EX fighters. The plane’s area of interest stays exploiting markets the place for political causes purchasers can not take into account non-Western armaments such because the Russian Su-30, and for different political causes haven’t been provided the F-35. When competing in opposition to the Su-30 in nations much less prone to Western political stress, the French fighter has additionally persistently misplaced.
The Republic of China Air Power falls intothe area of interest of an optimum consumer for the Rafale, because of an efficient lack of any options other than the F-16. Nonetheless, the service had a damaging expertise with the Mirage 2000, with the discrepancy between it and the F-16 changing into more and more obvious as they aged, with the Mirages proving to be among the many most accident inclined and least dependable fighters on this planet. Not solely have been cracks discovered within the plane’s engines, however eight of the plane could be concerned in crashes, most not too long ago in September 2024. Moreover, France has failed to supply a ‘4+ era’ modernisation bundle for the plane, in contract to the USA which has introduced elements of the F-16’s avionics and its weaponry to a fifth era normal with the F-16V bundle.
Ought to Taipei signal orders for the Rafale it will be the one economically developed consumer for the fighter, which has in any other case gained export contracts solely amongst third world stage economies. The flexibility of the Rafale to considerably alter the steadiness of energy within the Taiwan Strait could be extremely restricted, because the light-weight plane’s capabilities are broadly corresponding to the F-16 Block 70/72 and modernised F-16V, and considerably inferior to these of the mainland’s heavyweight ‘4+ era’ fighters such because the J-16, and fifth era fighters such because the J-35 and J-20.
The F-35 is taken into account the one fighter on this planet able to difficult the Chinese language Individuals’s Liberation Army Air Power’s prime fight jets such because the J-20 and J-35, whereas the service is presently positioned to start fielding the world’s first sixth era fighters within the early 2030s, after having unveiled two separate designs each beneath flight testing in December 2024. The Rafale, in contrast, in early Could noticed between one and 4 of its quantity neutralised throughout engagements with Pakistan Air Power J-10C ‘4+ era’ fighters, that are the bottom finish fighters the Individuals’s Liberation Army has acquired over the previous half decade. Even when a contract have been signed in 2025, the primary Rafale squadron would possible not turn into operational within the Republic of China Air Power earlier than it’s successfully out of date because the mainland operationalises its first sixth era fighters within the early 2030s.
