BAe Rafale

[McColm]

 What if the Eurofighter Typhoon had been cancelled and Britain  had bought the Dassault Rafale underlience but had used Rolls-Royce engines and British avionics.
The British would have bought single seaters and dual seater aircraft for the fighter and bomber Squadrons. The Fleet Air Arm would get the carrier version single seater.
Known in Britain as the BAe Rafale  the first batch of aircraft was the two seater used for training .It became apparent that a two seater training aircraft for the Fleet Air Arm needed to be built  ( although in the rear world none made it into production).
For 12 Squadron and 208 Squadron a licence was granted to fly at 30feet above the sea to avoid enemy radar when attacking surface vessels.
  Due to budget cuts the RAF and the FAA would only get the Maverick M & N , pooling aircraft as and when needed for operational duties.
Reconnaissance pods and buddy buddy refuelling pods would be a common sight with a few of the training aircraft converted into EW or special missions. Development aircraft and research.

The build
I have in my stash a couple of 1/72 Dassault Rafale kits one is the N and the other the C, along with 1/72 Eurofighter Typhoon kits. I just need to find out if the engine exhaust pipes from the Typhoon will fit the Rafale,  likewise the lumps and bumps.
Four Sea Eagle missiles would look great on the Rafale as a tribute to
208 Squadron .
Other paint schemes are to follow and you can use your own.
The Rafale does have clearance to land and take off from USNavy aircraft carriers so I think I might have to buy some USNavy decals that fit the Rafale.

[Gondor]

When the RAF or RN have bought aircraft from France, the name has stayed the same so the Rafael would still be called that. Also your first sentence is a mess and very diffricult to understand.

Gondor

[Pellson]

Top sentence seems ok to me bar some spelling, so I assume you've fixed it. Sod spelling btw - I blame my telephone for spelling errors..

I think there's too many versions. It bloody expensive not only to develop but also to maintain many different but almost similar versions simultaneously. Hence, the pooling idea isn't bad at all, assuming similar airframes for both services.

Re one vs two seats - IRL, the Eurofighter countries only use twoseaters for training whereas the French afaik use twoseater Rafales for strike missions. Another similar example would be the USB Super Bugs that come in single seat (E) and two seat (F) versions, but I haven't read up on how they use them. Anyone knows?

I love reading your ideas again. Even if some of them are way out. I think that's ok - it comes with the whif territory. Missed reading them when you were ill.

[Gondor]

Top sentence seems ok to me bar some spelling, so I assume you've fixed it. Sod spelling btw - I blame my telephone for spelling errors..

I think there's too many versions. It bloody expensive not only to develop but also to maintain many different but almost similar versions simultaneously. Hence, the pooling idea isn't bad at all, assuming similar airframes for both services.

Re one vs two seats - IRL, the Eurofighter countries only use twoseaters for training whereas the French afaik use twoseater Rafales for strike missions. Another similar example would be the USB Super Bugs that come in single seat (E) and two seat (F) versions, but I haven't read up on how they use them. Anyone knows?

I love reading your ideas again. Even if some of them are way out. I think that's ok - it comes with the whif territory. Missed reading them when you were ill.

Yup he fixed it but made a one word replacement which should be two words..... oh well, it's far far better than it was.

As for comonality, the Typhoon has more common between airframes used by each of the participating countries than the Tornado did.

The F/A-18 two seater started out as the TF-18 and is/was primerally used for training though the F/A-18G is a two seater used as a Prowler replacement and called the Growler.

Gondor

[scooter]

Re one vs two seats - IRL, the Eurofighter countries only use twoseaters for training whereas the French afaik use twoseater Rafales for strike missions. Another similar example would be the USB Super Bugs that come in single seat (E) and two seat (F) versions, but I haven't read up on how they use them. Anyone knows?

The F/A-18 two seater started out as the TF-18 and is/was primerally used for training though the F/A-18G is a two seater used as a Prowler replacement and called the Growler.

Gondor

Depends, also on the Navy Squadron.  Because some Super Bug operators use Fs in the strike fighter role, while others are pure E squadrons.

And let's not forget about the F-15A/C/J (fighter/interceptors) variants versus B/D/DJ (trainers) versus E/I/K/S/SG (strike fighters)

[Pellson]

Depends, also on the Navy Squadron.  Because some Super Bug operators use Fs in the strike fighter role, while others are pure E squadrons.

Yeah, I was under the impression that certain VFA-sqns only fly the F whereas other only fly the E. But I might have mixed things up, and I for sure don't know what difference in role they entertain.

[McColm]

When the RAF or RN have bought aircraft from France, the name has stayed the same so the Rafael would still be called that. Also your first sentence is a mess and very diffricult to understand.

Gondor

It's now been corrected,  thanks for your comments.

[AeroplaneDriver]

When the RAF or RN have bought aircraft from France, the name has stayed the same so the Rafael would still be called that. Also your first sentence is a mess and very diffricult to understand.

Gondor

It's now been corrected,  thanks for your comments.

Ask him what "diffricult" means. 😆

Anyway enough pot stirring and grammar police. 

I have a plan for a RN Rafale in the near future using the Revell 1/48 kit.

Back when the UK flip-flopped on the carriers and went from STOVL to CATOBAR configuration the F-18 and Rafale were both briefly rumored as a potential platform to save the cost of fully equipping them with F-35Cs.   Around the same time France were looking closely at the QE Class design as their new PA2 carrier. 

It never came to fruition and the UK flip flopped back to STOVL after they were satisfied that an appropriate delay and cost overrun had been incurred, but it's easy to imagine a What If scenario where part of the deal for France to purchase a QE carrier is an air wing of Rafales in part exchange.

[Leading Observer]

Comme ca? https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=475.msg587489#msg587489

[AeroplaneDriver]

Comme ca? https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=475.msg587489#msg587489

Love it!   Though I think Mike Sidewinders or ASRAAMs on the wingtips... 😉