The rafale NEVER (do you like the underline?) started as a carrier based aircraft.
The French left the Eurofighter programme because they could not persuade the other partners to limit the size/weight to a 10 ton limit. The limitiations that limit imposed on performance/payload/range etc were just too great.
Why, you will ask, were the French so insistent on a 10 ton limit?
That was the maximum weight foran aircraft capable of operating off the deck of the Foch......