page_title: Dassault Rafale
section_title: Specifications
hierarchical_section_title: Dassault Rafale / Specifications
caption_attribution_description: MBDA MICA on a Dassault Rafale Marine
context_page_description: The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. Equipped with a wide range of weapons, the Rafale is intended to perform air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions. The Rafale is referred to as an "omnirole" aircraft by Dassault.
  In the late 1970s, the French Air Force and French Navy were seeking to replace and consolidate their current fleets of aircraft. In order to reduce development costs and boost prospective sales, France entered into an arrangement with UK, Germany, Italy and Spain to produce an agile multi-purpose fighter, the Eurofighter Typhoon. Subsequent disagreements over workshare and differing requirements led to France's pursuit of its own development programme. Dassault built a technology demonstrator which first flew in July 1986 as part of an eight-year flight-test programme, paving the way for the go-ahead of the project.
context_section_description: Data from Dassault Aviation, Superfighters, French Navy, International Directory of Military Aircraft
  General characteristics
  Crew: 1 or 2
  Length: 15.27 m (50 ft 1 in)
  Wingspan: 10.90 m (35 ft 9 in)
  Height: 5.34 m (17 ft 6 in)
  Wing area: 45.7 m² (492 sq ft)
  Empty weight: 10,300 kg (22,708 lb) (B)
  9,850 kilograms (21,720 lb) (C)
  10,600 kilograms (23,400 lb) (M)
  Gross weight: 15,000 kg (33,069 lb)
  Max takeoff weight: 24,500 kg (54,013 lb)
  Fuel capacity: 4,700 kg (10,362 lb) internal for single-seater (C); 4,400 kg (9,700 lb) for two-seater (B)
  Maximum fuel: (C): 16,550 l (4,370 US gal; 3,640 imp gal) (5,750 l (1,520 US gal; 1,260 imp gal) internal + 2,300 l (610 US gal; 510 imp gal) in 2x conformal tanks + 8,500 l (2,200 US gal; 1,900 imp gal) in 5 drop tanks)
  Powerplant: 2 × Snecma M88-2 turbofans, 50.04 kN (11,250 lbf) thrust  each  dry, 75 kN (17,000 lbf) with afterburner
  Performance
  Maximum speed: 2,223 km/h (1,381 mph, 1,200 kn)  / Mach 1.8 at high altitude
  1,390 km/h, 860 mph, 750 kn / Mach 1.1 at low altitude
  Supercruise: Mach 1.4
  Combat range: 1,850 km (1,150 mi, 1,000 nmi) on penetration mission with three tanks (5,700 L), two SCALP-EG and two MICA AAMs.
  Ferry range: 3,700 km (2,300 mi, 2,000 nmi) with 3 drop tanks
  Service ceiling: 15,835 m (51,952 ft)
  g limits: +9 −3.6 (+11 in emergencies)
  Rate of climb: 304.8 m/s (60,000 ft/min)
  Wing loading: 328 kg/m² (67 lb/sq ft)
  Thrust/weight: 0.988 (100% fuel, 2 EM A2A missile, 2 IR A2A missile) version B
  Armament
  Guns: 1× 30 mm (1.2 in) GIAT 30/M791 autocannon with 125 rounds
  Hardpoints: 14 for Air Force versions (Rafale B/C), 13 for Navy version (Rafale M) with a capacity of 9,500 kg (20,900 lb) external fuel and ordnance,with provisions to carry combinations of:
  Missiles: 
  Air-to-air:
  Magic II
  MBDA MICA IR or EM
  MBDA Meteor
  Air-to-ground:
  MBDA Apache
  MBDA Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG
  AASM-Hammer (SBU-38/54/64)
  GBU-12 Paveway II, GBU-22 Paveway III, GBU-24 Paveway III, GBU-49 Enhanced Paveway II
  AS-30L
  Mark 82
  Air-to-surface:
  MBDA AM 39-Exocet anti-ship missile
  Nuclear Deterrence:
  ASMP-A nuclear missile
  Other: 
  Thales Damocles targeting pod
  Thales AREOS (Airborne Recce Observation System) reconnaissance pod
  Thales TALIOS multi-function targeting pod in the future (F3R Standard)
  Up to 5 drop tanks
  Buddy-buddy refuelling pod
  Avionics
  Thales RBE2-AA AESA radar
  Thales SPECTRA Electronic Warfare system.
  Thales/SAGEM-OSF Optronique Secteur Frontal infra-red search and track (IRST) system
caption: MICA: short- to medium-range air-to-air missile
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FZ20", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver1.0", "Image DateTime": "2007:06:20 11:21:02", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "418", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "6804", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7309", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:06:20 11:21:02", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:06:20 11:21:02", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "77/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2560", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1920", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "6652", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "46", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Hard", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}