A comparison of the French-made Dassault Rafale and American's Boeing F/A-18 to understand how they stack against each other for the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy? The Indian Navy is looking to replace ageing MiG-29k naval fighter jets. Navy recently conducted trials for Rafale M and F/A-18 E/F fighter jets. Both the jets are also in competition for the Indian Air Force

The Indian Navy needs 26 fighter aircraft for INS Vikrant as the plane designed for carrier operations will not be ready before 2032. Currently, the Navy has only the MiG-29K. The French-made Rafale and the US-made F-18 have both met the requirements, but the Rafale's compatibility makes it slightly ahead. There is little difference in size, with the Rafale being slightly smaller. A decision has to go through the Defence Acquisition Council and the Cabinet Committee on Security to be made reports TimesNow.

After the Indian Air Force getting its hands on modern fighter jets like TEJAS, Rafale, and placing another massive order of more than 100 fighter jets to replace the ageing fleet, now the Indian Navy is looking for an overhaul. The Navy requires a new batch of modern fighter aircraft to operate from its aircraft carriers. The Indian Navy had initiated the process to acquire 57 multi-role combat aircraft for its aircraft carrier around four years ago. However, they will induct about 30 advance fighter jets in the fleet and replace the ageing Mig-29k, the naval version of the jet.

Recently, the navy carried out trials with the Dassault Rafale-M, which is a French-made 4.5 gen fighter jet already in service with the IAF and also US-made Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, to check the operational capabilities of these jets on aircraft carriers. Both the jets get Air Force as well as Naval versions.

The Indian Navy is also working on the TEDBF program which is the Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter program for made-in-India fighter jets based on the HAL Tejas LCA. Since these jets will take time to develop and will eventually replace foreign fighter jets in the fleet, Navy needs some modern machines in the interim to replace the Russian MIGs.

Here we compare the French Rafale and American F-18 to understand how they stack against each other for the Indian forces?


Dassault Rafale Marine

Rafale is a French word meaning "gust of wind" and is a twin-engine multirole 4.5 gen fighter aircraft manufactured and designed by Dassault Aviation. The Indian Air Force has placed a massive order to induct 36 Rafale jets to form two Squadrons, one in North India and another in South India. The Rafale Marine is the Naval version of the Rafale fighter jets with similar configuration.

The Dassault Rafale has a delta wing design and is capable of higher G-forces as much as 11G and is available in both single and dual seating cabin configurations. The Rafale is 15.27 metre long and a wingspan of 10.80 metre. The Rafale has GIAT 30M/719B cannon mounted on it with the capability of controlled 0.5 or 1 second bursts at 2,500 RPM. Rafale is equipped with a primary missile as the multi-target, fire-and-forget, air to air MBDA MICA missile. In BVR(Beyond Visual Range) air-to-air missile, Rafale has MBDA Meteor.

Boeing F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet

The Navy’s F/A-18E Super Hornet, developed by Boeing Company has a 20% larger airframe, with 41% more range and improved General Electric F414 engines (an upgrade over the Hornet’s F404), providing 35% more thrust. Just so you know, Boeing has been pitching the F-18 to the Indian Air Force as well. The one for the Navy is the Naval version of the F-18 called the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet.

The F-18 Super Hornet has Mach 1.8 speed, similar to the Rafale thanks to the GE sourced dual engines and is equipped with M61A1 Vulcan rotating cannon that can fire 6,000 rounds per minute. Super Hornet has semi-active radar homing Air Intercept Missile (AIM-7 Sparrow) missile. In BVR (Beyond Visual Range) air-to-air missile, Super Hornet has AIM-120 AMRAAM.