Indonesia pays $2.3 billion for 18 unarmed French Dassault Rafales
JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Jakarta must make a new payment for the 42 Rafale fighter jets it ordered from French company Dassault Aviation a year ago. About $2.3 billion is expected for a second batch of 18 planes, which follows another initial bid of $1.1 billion for six planes settled last September. In total, Indonesia has agreed to pay 8.1 billion for the entire fleet.
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French newspaper La Tribune said the third and final payment for the remaining 18 fighters was expected to be made at the end of this year. The announcement is now expected to take place soon.
With this sale, France received its third international customer for the Rafale in less than two months in February 2022. At the end of November 2021, the purchase of 12 of this model from Croatia was announced, and just two weeks later it was announced the sale of another 80 to the United Arab Emirates.
Those orders, along with an additional 30 more aircraft from Egypt, which had already acquired the Rafale in May 2021, led Dassault to consider tripling its annual production rate of Rafales, which at the time stood at just 11.
Previously, apart from France and the other four countries mentioned, Rafale jets were ordered by India, Qatar, and Greece. Subsequently, France negotiated with Serbia and Colombia, for example, for new sales of this model.
The sales contract with Indonesia does not provide for the supply of weapons for the aircraft, so the business for France is aimed slightly higher. What it includes are training services, support assignments at various air bases in the customer country, and a training center with two full mission simulators.
More about Rafale
For the first time, the French presented Rafale to the general public in 2001. Before that, the prototypes make several test flights. In addition to France and Egypt, Croatia, Qatar, Greece, India, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates also operate with them.
Rafale has max takeoff weight: of 24,500 kg [54,013 lb]. The maximum speed at which it can fly is 1,912 km/h [1,188 mph, 1,032 kn] or Mach 1.8 at high altitudes. At a lower altitude, however, its speed is different – 1,390 km/h, 860 mph, 750 kn, or Mach 1.1. The maximum combat range of the aircraft is 1,850 km.
The Rafale is armed with air-to-air missiles, air-to-ground missiles, anti-ship missiles, anti-radiation missiles, as well as various types of bombs. Apart from the French, some other Rafale export versions also carry the world’s best air-to-air missile – the MBDA Meteor.
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