A French Dassault Rafale M with refueling pod.
A French Dassault Rafale M (Marine version) with refueling pod during the La Ferté-Alais airshow on June 7, 2014.
In 1985, Dassault began developing the Rafale on behalf of the French government after France withdrew from the development of what would later become the Eurofighter Typhoon.
France had held talks in the early 1980s with Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain to jointly build a fighter that could take on the Soviet Union's then-new MiG-29 and SU-27 fighters. Designing and building an aircraft together with all countries would be cheaper for everyone. After disagreements over division of labor and operational requirements of the new aircraft, France decided to drop out of the project and develop its own aircraft that eventually yielded the Rafale.
                                
 
                                I am Jaap van den Berg and photography has become a great passion of mine since 2010. Since then I travel all over the world to take pictures of military aircrafts. But besides aircraft I also love to photograph other subjects like landscapes, architecture, flowers, animals, .. Read more…
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