It is called Rafale F5 my dear.We hope that Thales will upgrade both RBE 2 And SPECTRA , To Meet the threat of Long Range Missiles and J 20 / J35 of PLAAF
Are you sick ?By the end of 7th yr of signing of the deal, entire Rafale fleet of IAF was supposed to have been equipped with ISE upgrades. The 36th Rafale was supposed to come with ISE upgrades done. And here we are even after 9yrs of signing the deal, with Zero ISE and even the Meteor non operational on Indian Rafale. What a big let down from DA.
Safran too has failed to do its part for offset deal. They were supposed to get the Kaveri engine going but they ditched us and Kaveri has been made fit totally by Indian Efforts. I still maintain that we must not go for additional Rafles till DA/Safran deliver on the 2016 deal. Instead we must go for Su-35s and Su-57s. Russians do not charge us as high as French did and they share everything including source codes with us.
No,its a fantastic aircraft. Rafale did the job perfectly and IAF if now going for follow on oreder.
Explain me why IAF accepted the last bird of the 36 (infact the first one, used to validate all the ISE) ?By the end of 7th yr of signing of the deal, entire Rafale fleet of IAF was supposed to have been equipped with ISE upgrades. The 36th Rafale was supposed to come with ISE upgrades done. And here we are even after 9yrs of signing the deal, with Zero ISE and even the Meteor non operational on Indian Rafale. What a big let down from DA.
Safran too has failed to do its part for offset deal. They were supposed to get the Kaveri engine going but they ditched us and Kaveri has been made fit totally by Indian Efforts. I still maintain that we must not go for additional Rafles till DA/Safran deliver on the 2016 deal. Instead we must go for Su-35s and Su-57s. Russians do not charge us as high as French did and they share everything including source codes with us.
No way.because who knows there is US pressure on France to not allow F4 or F5 config to India?
No,its a fantastic aircraft. Rafale did the job perfectly and IAF if now going for follow on oreder.
This is the Likely Battlefield of the Night of 6th and 7th May
We can Expect more such high intensity battles
AI is hallucinating here. Litening G4 is an LDP from Israel's Rafael. It is the standard targeting pod of the IAF. Although, the IAF is rumored to have purchased the Thales Talios LDP for Rafale.G4 Lightning electronic warfare pod
Integration of the IAF-proven electronic warfare pod used on most Indian fighter aircraft.
What are your sources ? And why be so angry ?why has DA failed to integrate the ISE in the aircraft till date. I am against the deal signed with developing an engine with France as they have cheated us. Even the French Rafale had just recently done test firing of Meteor. Even their own Rafale were not equipped with it. I am going to start a campaign to black list DA for failure to meet its commitments and to be penalised for it.
A Mod here had once published a photo of an IAF Rafale with this pod. But it was only a picture, to be treated as such: nothing conclusive(...) Although, the IAF is rumored to have purchased the Thales Talios LDP for Rafale.
)Dude, what is this ChatGPT asss answer???When the Pakistanis themselves admitted to having deployed their PL-15s against the Indian Rafales, and the end result was:
then yes, it is automatically perceived as huge publicity for the Rafale.
- only one aircraft lost (and even then, with uncertainty about the actual cause of the downing),
- while the Rafales then continued their air-to-ground strikes unhindered,
Why is it such powerful ‘advertising’?
For India
- Reversed narrative: instead of downplaying it, Islamabad publicly acknowledged the use of its ‘miracle weapons’ (PL-15), which makes the comparison measurable.
- Operational image: despite a salvo dedicated to countering them, the Rafales remained masters of the sky.
- Spectra enhanced: the electronic warfare suite is implicitly validated as capable of ‘neutralising’ the latest Chinese threat.
- Psychological consequence: any military expert understands that if an adversary ‘gives everything’ and achieves almost nothing, it is because the opposing platform has a clear advantage.
In short: by flexing its muscles with the PL-15, Pakistan has provided Dassault and the IAF with the best possible free advertising campaign.
- The IAF does not even need to engage in heavy propaganda: the fact that Pakistan has said so is enough to lend credibility to its internal discourse.
- Air-to-ground strikes without effective retaliation reinforce the idea of unquestionable air superiority.
- This comes at a time when the request for 114 ‘Made in India’ Rafales is on the table: the operational argument is rock solid.
Conclusion
The 2025-26 Defence Budget reflects the Indian government's attempt to
balance modernisation, operational readiness, and self-reliance amid a
dynamic geopolitical environment. While the overall allocation has seen a 9.5%
increase over the previous year, the budget as a percentage of GDP remains at
1.9%, continuing a declining trend that raises concerns about long-term
defence capability.

What a childish response. Dude's calling others' keyboard warrior because the retarded decision making of a retarded/shambolic Institution is being questioned. If you dismiss all criticism as "shut up, they know better", then whats the point of this forum. What the *censored* are you even doing here??I don't think we should get into if rafael are good or not. The forces with this proposal has clearly shown their confidence in it. And no amount of keyboard warriors can have better understanding of IAFs assets then IAF themselves.
And one is mistaken to think that given the propoganda machinery of ISI, CHINA and Indian left.. it wouldn't have blown up the issue of any fault with rafael. The fact that all they could do was cast doubts by citing each other, debunked images and sources of planes downed coming from "pakistan", which some morons take as truth for political potshots.. even after that it couldnt provide anything substantial. And no sir, our armed forces aren't called toughest customers for no reason. Even the worst system in inventory inducted have been proven to have edge over historical adversary when in IAFs hand. And forces will never spend this much sum for saving anyone from criticism. It's a huge organisation With direct command under President.
The issue is of managing funds. That's MoDs/CCS sphere since it sanctions.
capex. With AMCA, LCA MK1A, MK2. And simultaneous talks of rafael acquisition and Su-57E.. one wonders if this even makes sense. Something have to be sacrificed and it should not be LCA and AMCA ( Non-HAL).
Even spread over 12-15 years.. it's still a lot of money for simultaneous development and manufacturing.
Granted 60%IC results in a kick for economy itself. But the poor performance of HAL have had little value addition to indian economy. Then, who will borne the initial costs.. will Dassault be asked to invest and build before getting payment ( scheduled) or we pay in advance for any infra needed to be built.
Is the funds govt have in mind for IAF enough for successful projects of every program?


Source = pakistan?
Or do you think stealth is some magic we see in scifi where object become literally invisible? When fighting a rival AF, even 5th jet goes down. Point is.. did they serve their role? What kind of environment we battled in? And what was the enemy tactics used.
Even CDS has made everything clear and yet you rant here.
More details are surfacing as IAF does it due diligence. That's the difference b/w a professional army and a political army( pak).
It depends if in your political pain, you're going to target non-political gain. If you wanna discuss about politics, we have a seperate thread for it.. and we can have comparative analysis on all the past and current indian policy makers. What you say?

Ah..... yes, clearly spending $300 mil+ per a/c is not good enough, lets burn more cash to make it $350 mil+ per a/c.
Did you see the report from the IAF to come with such an affirmation ? Or are you guessing by trying to analyse what you know ? (Probably not more than any other here)Rafale was shot down because its survivability nosedives in contested airspace. Indian rafales didnt even go into contested airspace, they were within indian borders. Thats saying something.
.. and calling indian military a shambolic institution.. 
?No way.
Rafale is fully ITAR free. And after the AUKUS blow, France will never accept a US pressure on a weapon deal.
The warfare is not plane to plane, its a network against a network.Rafale was shot down because its survivability nosedives in contested airspace. Indian rafales didnt even go into contested airspace, they were within indian borders. Thats saying something.
Its airframe is not shaped for all aspect stealth. No matter how much the french try to sell their a/c as literal magic i.e. spectra, it cant make up for its non-stealth shaping.
Dude, what is this ChatGPT asss answer???
Rafale was shot down because its survivability nosedives in contested airspace. Indian rafales didnt even go into contested airspace, they were within indian borders. Thats saying something.
Its airframe is not shaped for all aspect stealth. No matter how much the french try to sell their a/c as literal magic i.e. spectra, it cant make up for its non-stealth shaping.
Its not a bad a/c, thats not what I am saying. Its IS a capable aircraft. My point is this plane is not good enough to justify its price tag. There is no rational way to justify spending $300+ mil per a/c on a non-stealth jet to be inducted post-2030. If you mfg them in India, the cost is going to increase even more. At this point, if you are going to burn so much money, either go for Su-57 or swallow your pride & join any other stealth program. Maybe go for South Korean jet by a JV with a pvt consortium. Whatever may be the program but it should be a 5th gen a/c, unlike Rafale. Burning billions on a non-stealth plane is just setting youself up for failure.
Another troubling aspect:
There are conflicting reports that Meteor is not even properly mated with Indian Rafales, its main selling point.
Broader point:
People dont seem to realise that Modi has reduced india's military spending as % of GDP to a historical low of 1.9%. Cause thats the prudent thing to do, economic growth is everything. Once you are prosperous enough, then you can focus on military. But economy is the most important priority for a $2700 pci country like India. Military spending of India should be as low as practically possible right now. I would argue it should be below 1.2%. Thats because Indian economy is poised for a generational take-off, the most we make of it, the more prosperous our future generations will be[We failed post-2005, dont repeat that mistake]. Military spending is a drag on economic growth cause its unproductive.
Now some harsh truths: US & China are going to be the 2 main poles of miltech innovtion. These nations have passed their high growth eras & are focusing on creating the miltech to assert their dominance. These nations will make the best Air-forces going forwards cause only these 2 have the money & scale. Its prudent to hitch your wagon to atleast 1 of them [If possible to both of them]. Everyone else will just play catch-up to them. Not buying from either one of them is just self-defeating.
In this context, when Indian economy is poised for a take-off, its prudent to buy from these countries as it means you are minimising your military expenditure to buy the best stuff and get the max value out of the money you spend.
Buying from others is just retarded. India is not winning any wars even if we get all 114 Rafales/Su-57/Tie-fighters/yada-yada and bankrupting ourselves in the process.
https://www.delhipolicygroup.org/uploads_dpg/publication_file/indias-defence-budget-2025-26-5271.pdf
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Military budget of India - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Nice, but we need to explain him what exactly the no escape zone means. It's not a 100% kill assurance into this zone. It means that whatever the target will do, inside this range he will not be able to exhaust the missile energy. That's all.