Dassault Doubles Down on Rafale Production to Meet Global Demand

In response to rising global demand, Dassault Aviation has significantly increased its Rafale fighter jet production goals.

The French manufacturer plans to build 22 Rafales annually, marking a sharp rise from its previous target of 15 aircraft per year. After a production shortfall last year, where only 13 jets were built, Dassault is taking steps to ensure they hit this new ambitious production number.

Dassault aims to produce two Rafale fighters per month, potentially allowing them to exceed the target of 22 jets and reach an annual total of 24. This aggressive ramp-up in production is driven by significant order backlogs from numerous countries around the world.

The Rafale's advanced technology and its proven performance in recent conflicts have made it a highly desirable fighter jet for many international air forces.

To achieve these ambitious production targets, Dassault will have to conquer the challenges that hampered their efforts last year. Ensuring a steady supply of skilled labor and a reliable materials supply chain will be crucial to sustaining the increased production.

Further disruptions caused by unforeseen global events or other factors could also hinder Dassault's production plan.

Conclusion​

Dassault Aviation is clearly confident in the continued robust demand for the Rafale fighter jet. Its decision to increase production reflects the aircraft's growing reputation as a top-tier multirole combat aircraft.

How Dassault handles the challenges of accelerating production will be critical to fulfilling the current surge in orders.

 

[Pink Panther]

Making 6/year is not ramping up, the only way they can ramp up production is outsourcing production to India to make for IAF and for the World, they should sell it for $85Mln to IAF, the same price that French Airforce pays, may be they can charge other Countries $300Mln.

 

[sanket]

So even Established players dont have even 20 jets per year production capacity.From well knwn Aero-Engine to Fighter jet are under 20 per year.

 

[Anant]

See, established manufacturers like Dassult are having difficulties achieving near-complete utilisation of their production capacity, and we have HAL here who casually claims they can just reach 24 jets a year.

 

[Anant]

Making 6/year is not ramping up, the only way they can ramp up production is outsourcing production to India to make for IAF and for the World, they should sell it for $85Mln to IAF, the same price that French Airforce pays, may be they can charge other Countries $300Mln.

Your figures are badly off. France recently ordered 42 Rafales in a deal that came in at about 5.5 billion USD, which comes to about 131 million USD per aircraft. When even France is paying that much, how on Earth do you expect India to have to pay less than that?

 

[Pink Panther]

Your figures are badly off. France recently ordered 42 Rafales in a deal that came in at about 5.5 billion USD, which comes to about 131 million USD per aircraft. When even France is paying that much, how on Earth do you expect India to have to pay less than that?

Rafale F3 was sold to french Airforce for $85Mln 20 years ago, there is no official details on how much an F4 Rafale costs as they are still testing them.

 

[Kira]

See, established manufacturers like Dassult are having difficulties achieving near-complete utilisation of their production capacity, and we have HAL here who casually claims they can just reach 24 jets a year.

I believe Dassault is struggling only because of COVID restrictions and the fact that there were sudden burst of orders from several nations in a short span of time after India ordered the Jet.
HAL and other PSUs struggle even at the basic things in the best of times.

 

[Anant]

Rafale F3 was sold to french Airforce for $85Mln 20 years ago, there is no official details on how much an F4 Rafale costs as they are still testing them.

The current order is for the F4 variant, and is priced, as seen in the announcements, at 130 million USD per jet.

As for the F3 price, do you really want India to buy the Rafale F3 now? Assuming that you do, do you really think Dassault or France, or anyone else for that matter, would just let all their profit margins dissipate for nothing?

 

[Pink Panther]

See, established manufacturers like Dassult are having difficulties achieving near-complete utilisation of their production capacity, and we have HAL here who casually claims they can just reach 24 jets a year.

So we shouldn’t blame HAL, also HAL’s manufacturing practices and techniques are ancient compared to Dassault, so HAL making 6/year is a great thing, but making 24 as HAL claims is not feasible at this moment.

 

[Apocalypse gupta]

See, established manufacturers like Dassult are having difficulties achieving near-complete utilisation of their production capacity, and we have HAL here who casually claims they can just reach 24 jets a year.

Well after ccurrent govt came to power,, it has whipped the Defence PSU, DRDO, OFB etc. There is tremendous push for self reliance by political leadership. In past 5-6 years things have improved significantly.

HAL has modernised and set up new plants as well. I mean it is not its fault because previous govts didnt give money, and indian military had fetis-h for foreign equipment.

 

[kumar]

Additional production can be done in India.

 

[desigandu]

A 2nd assembly (Rafale F4) line should be established in India under MRFA with a capacity of 16-24 Rafales per year...That way, if we sign a G2G in 2025, deliveries can start say in 2028 (say 30+ 26 RafaleMs built in France and delivered by 2030) and (the rest) be complete (120-30=90 odd jets) say in 6-8 years...Rafales are inevitable even if they are expensive from a geopolitical perspective (and its is hard to trust the US with fighter platforms is what is the general consensus, though we should talk with the Americans on what will it take for us to potentially split MRFA into Rafales and thus get 48-60 F0-35As by 2030-2032 before AMCA comes in around 2035) and the fact that we already operate 36 F-3 versions, which also need to be upgraded...Possible but hard, but we must strive for it by removing bottlenecks, transforming R&D, potentially getting private sector in with assured orders...But let us try and remove the bottlenecks...With AMCA approved, Tejas Mk-2 on the horizon, possibility of TEDBF approval after elections and MRFA in 2025, and Kaveri-2, GE F-414 and high thrust 130KN work starting hopefully soon, IAF and our Military aviation sector has a lot to achieve in next 8-10 years...Wish them well and hopefully the political and funding roadblocks can be minimized so focus is on R&D, TOT and production.

 

[desigandu]

Except the Americans (F-35s) and the Chinese (J-20 and others), no one else including the French, Russians and the British have scale production (100+ per year) of fighter jets, and thus we should realize 1 player like HAL (who has cultural issues and is also trying to do everything - engines, upgrades, new fighters, and helicopters, and transports) will face constraints and thus can't deliver on time/budget, therefore we need at least 2 big players with scale...Therefore HAL can focus on Soviet/Russia jets and their upgrades with Tejas-Mk1As and 2s (while divesting helicopters to a private player or form a JV and also new engines should involve private players in a JV at least) , but MRFA (Rafales) should be only with a private player (say TATAS, or others with deep pockets and long term goals), and new programs like AMCA and TEDBF should harness an ecosystem of HAL+Private players...That way long term by 2035 we will at least have the capacity to produce about 50+ fighters/year between 2 large players...It will take time but it is possible.

 

[Akhil]

Dassault with all its years of legacy and with a pipeline of orders is finding it hard to produce 24 jet per year while people blame HAL for having a slow production rate when it's a complete new ecosystem build happening right in front of our eyes.

Small partners are being encouraged to build right from but and bolt. Premium has to be paid to scale up these enterprises and build capacities. Horizontal scaling must be done at the same time. Multiple alternate vendors must be built.
New assembly lines must be build.

I would prefer if we even paid Rafale rate for Tejas right now. Only then can the ecosystem can be build including for private R&D.

But overall, the bottleneck of US engine will remain for some time.

Anyways, good news that AMCA project (finally) got clearance today. Guys should we already add this delay in HAL's account or we wait? IAF requirements will need to be changed now as the tech became obsolete in these years.

 

[Tanishq Bafila]

Except the Americans (F-35s) and the Chinese (J-20 and others), no one else including the French, Russians and the British have scale production (100+ per year) of fighter jets, and thus we should realize 1 player like HAL (who has cultural issues and is also trying to do everything - engines, upgrades, new fighters, and helicopters, and transports) will face constraints and thus can't deliver on time/budget, therefore we need at least 2 big players with scale...Therefore HAL can focus on Soviet/Russia jets and their upgrades with Tejas-Mk1As and 2s (while divesting helicopters to a private player or form a JV and also new engines should involve private players in a JV at least) , but MRFA (Rafales) should be only with a private player (say TATAS, or others with deep pockets and long term goals), and new programs like AMCA and TEDBF should harness an ecosystem of HAL+Private players...That way long term by 2035 we will at least have the capacity to produce about 50+ fighters/year between 2 large players...It will take time but it is possible.

Dear CCS today cleared funds for the AMCA Mk1 and according to the reports the MK1 will have no private partner because they are not interested..

Mk2 will have Indigenously development 110KN engine jointly produced by DRDO + Another foreign partner ( most probably Safran ) & Private player will produce mk2

 

[Siddharth Asthana]

Dassault with all its years of legacy and with a pipeline of orders is finding it hard to produce 24 jet per year while people blame HAL for having a slow production rate when it's a complete new ecosystem build happening right in front of our eyes.

Small partners are being encouraged to build right from but and bolt. Premium has to be paid to scale up these enterprises and build capacities. Horizontal scaling must be done at the same time. Multiple alternate vendors must be built.
New assembly lines must be build.

I would prefer if we even paid Rafale rate for Tejas right now. Only then can the ecosystem can be build including for private R&D.

But overall, the bottleneck of US engine will remain for some time.

Anyways, good news that AMCA project (finally) got clearance today. Guys should we already add this delay in HAL's account or we wait? IAF requirements will need to be changed now as the tech became obsolete in these years.

Ofcourse, and now we will see they will manufacture 22 by Mar 2025 unlike HAL that is lumbering for 10 years, promising and pushing deadlines every year. That is the difference between professional pvt sector vs chai biscuit babus of DPSU.

About comparing MK1 with Rafale, just walk to the showrooms of Maruti and Mercedes....comparing them is usless since they belong to different categories.

But the funny thing, Tata produces more cars annually today depite limited experience of only 20 yrs compared to the peak production of HM producing ambassadors despite it being a monopoly with assured govt contracts....DPSUS are an inefficient third leg of the economy today and must be divested ASAP with govt only having an oversight through Board membership...anyways