AIRCRAFT PROGRAM

Omnirole, delta wing combat aircraft with twin turbofan engines.

70% of the wetted area is made from composites. 50% of the fuselage is manufactured from carbon fibre with side skins of aluminium-lithium alloy. The wings - swept-back, delta wings with close-coupled fully moving canards—are predominantly composites with titanium slats, Kevlar wing root and tip fairings. The single vertical tail fin is carbon fibre with honeycomb core in rudder. Engine and wheel doors are also carbon fibre.

Single pilot in Rafale C/M plus weapons system officer in Rafale B seated in 29 degree reclined ejection seats. Glass cockpit is fully digital and features side-opening hinged canopy coated in gold. Pilot faces digital display of two square multifunction LCD screens plus third wide angle head level display, with HOTAS controls, side-stick controller on right and throttle on left.

Type variants

Variant	Launch/First flight	Production end
Dassault Rafale B	1982 / 1986		Two-seater variant, being developed to accomodate single-pilot combat capability.
Dassault Rafale C	1986 / 1991		Single-seat combat version for French Air Force.
Dassault Rafale M	1998 / 2001		Single-seat, carrier-borne version of Rafale C.

Recent news

• 16/06/2026:  Press Release:  Daher: industrial partner of Dassault Aviation on the Rafale programme
• 13/04/2026:  Press Release:  Safran modernizes and strengthens forging capacity at its historic Gennevilliers site
• 18/03/2026:  NEWS:  Airbus targets 2029 German UCCA capability with Valkyrie
• 28/01/2026:  Press Release:  Safran expands its operations in Le Creusot to produce complex parts for Rafale engines
• 12/01/2026:  Press Release:  Harmattan AI’s $200 million Series B led by Dassault Aviation

View full news archive for the Dassault Rafale.

See recent updates (latest 16/06/2026)