Le Rafale more favorite than ever in India against the Super Hornet

In order to modernize its on-board fighter fleet, and to arm the new aircraft carrier INS Vikrant which will enter service on September 2, the Indian Navy had launched a competition initially involving 57 on-board devices. After initial evaluations, two aircraft were selected to continue the competition, the American Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III, and the Dassault Rafale M French. The two fighters notably participated in a springboard test campaign at the Goa naval air base at the start of the year, both having demonstrated their ability to use this type of device to take to the air without a catapult. Boeing is increasing communications with the Indian press in order to curry favor with public opinion, although it is difficult, in this area, to overshadow the excellent public image in India of Rafale and its predecessor, the Mirage 2000. The French aircraft is, for its part, the big favorite, a position reinforced by the latest announcements from the Indian Navy.

Indeed, his Deputy Chief of Staff, Vice-Admiral SN Ghormade, confirmed a rumor that had been circulating for several months in front of the press on Tuesday, according to which the order from the Indian Navy would not relate to 57 aircraft as initially planned, but only on 26 hunters, these in front play the role of an interim solution pending the arrival of the future on-board twin-engine fighter (Twin-Engined Deck Based Fighter or TEDBF) developed by the Indian Armaments Agency, DRDO. In this context, the Rafale M from Dassault Aviation has decisive advantages to win against its American rival, while the competition has, until now, been rather indecisive.

From a performance point of view, both devices evolve in a pocket handkerchief. Thus, if the Super Hornet has more powerful F-414 turbojets than the French M-88s of the Rafale, the American aircraft is also much heavier than its French counterpart, the additional power of its engines only compensating for the additional empty mass of the F/A-18. In terms of carrying capacities, including on a springboard, the two aircraft demonstrated very similar performances, even if the aerodynamic configuration of the Rafale equipped with canard designs and a wing loading lower than that of the Super Hornet favors the French aircraft in terms of action radius at equal load. In terms of detection and self-protection capabilities, the two aircraft also display comparable if not similar performances, just as with regard to on-board weapons, the Rafale having the advantage of the long-range air-to-air missile Meteor and the very efficient MICA NG, the Super Hornet that of the air-to-ground anti-radiation missile Harm. However, the Rafale can rely today on a much richer and more serene long-term production and development schedule than that of the Super Hornet, which will no longer be in service with the US Navy by 2040/2045, and which will no longer be acquired by it beyond 2023.

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