Sharmine and BillHicksRules,
Can I join this game of Top Trumps too?
That was a lovely glossy Dassault site, and I thought the range quote of "Radius of action (penetration mission) more than 1.000 NM" was wonderfully vague. I wonder if that mission description includes an AAR top up straight off the boat or prior to the push?
And being from the Dassault site it's bound to really accurate, not at all liberal with figures rounded up in an attempt to secure a first Rafale export order.
And the 1000nm (Rafale) vs 600nm (F-35 CV) is a bit apples and oranges. Rafale will have external fuel tanks (3? 4?) to do that kind of range; if F-35 were on the same mission (one that demanded no more stealth than the radar reflecting flat-plate Rafale with those external bags of gas) I'm sure the external fuel tanks fitted to her would push the range out to a similar, albeit less glossy number.
My next Top Trump is a Navalised Typhoon with a combat radius of 3000nm and the ability to carry as much ordnance as 20 Lancasters to countries that have mysteriously moved closer to the UK bringing all potential targets within easy reach of the MOB and a 8 hour crew duty day (reduced due to the 9g stress on aircrew.) Taken from an super secret Air Staff paper circulating the towers of power but carelessly left on the desk of the editor of the Sun.