Entered service at the beginning of the 2000s, first in the French Navy then in the Air Force, the Rafale is today the spearhead of the French air forces, and it will remain so for several decades, several dozen devices remaining to be delivered, without even mentioning the additional orders to come. This longevity, the Rafale it will owe on the one hand to the end of the Cold War, which stopped the usual rhythm of renewal of combat aircraft, but also and above all to its very design, which allows it to be updated regularly, in an incremental manner , without major structural modification.
For a year, the Air Force and the Navy have started to update their fleet of Rafale to the F3R standard, which includes a new active radar antenna (RBE2 AESA) from Thales, the very long-range METEOR aerial missile or the new generation TALIOS laser designation pod, which finally corrects the major defects of the Damocles pod for firing at short range. In January 2019, however, even though the first Rafale F3R were delivered, the Minister of the Armed Forces officially launches the development of a major new standard in Rafale, the F4.
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