Completely designed, developed and manufactured in France, the Rafale multirole fighter jet has turned into one of the most successful Dassault products in the market of 4th Generation multirole fighter jets. In addition to the 128 examples currently in service with the French Air and Space Force and Navy Aviation, 225 other Rafales were sold to Croatia, Egypt, Greece, India, UAE and Qatar.
For years, French Navy Aviation and the Air and Space Force have been the two main operators of the multirole combat aircraft. The first had its first Navy variant, the Rafale M, put into operation in 2002 while the latter began operating its first Rafale Bs in 2006. Since that, they both have used these aircraft in combat during various anti-terrorist operations in Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Chad, Syria and Iraq. In addition to that, their aircraft were used to bolster defense of NATO's eastern borders during the recent war in Ukraine.
