No news on UAE Rafale - but fighter is performing well

Speaking at a pre-Paris Air Show briefing Edelstenne said that Dassault remains a company with a principle of discretion and would not talk about customers. He did say that the joint venture with the UAE – DASBAT – set up to simplify support for Dassault military aircraft in the region is progressing well.

Edelstenne said the Rafale is seeing intense active service in Afghanistan, “The aircraft are giving complete satisfaction,” he said. 

“We are continuing to work on the road map to increase Rafale’s reconnaissance, detection and identification capability. With regard to the new active electronically scanned array radar, the various modes have been validated during testing and post-series production has begun.  We are well ahead of our non-American competitors.”

Edelstenne said Dassault was expecting qualification of the Damocles pod at the end of this year which will give the rafale an independent laser-guided weapons capability.