KAG, you seem to be suggesting that Rafale was only selected because of Dassault's past glories. At least, that is how I read it.
Yes, France has exported large numbers of jet fighters across the world, and they have seen conflict in many countries. But let's remember that their reputation (and particularly that of the Mirage III) was largely down to their operation by Israel throughout the 1950s and 1960s against mostly inferior opposition. Had France not made the decision to begin supplying Israel with military aircraft then it could be a very different story. In fact, the day that France cancelled orders from the Israeli government following the 1967 Six Day War, and thus prompting Israel to look elsewhere for its military needs, must have been a bad one for the French arms industry. Compare the number of Mirage 2000s built compared to how many exported F-16s have left the factory. France also made a number of sales to regimes and countries that, quite frankly, no-one else would deal with.
But as far as India is concerned, and if you want to play the numbers game, they have flown 104 Ouragans, 110 Mystere IVs and 49 Mirage 2000s (abandoning plans for a further 110s M2000s and buying MiG-29s instead) for a total of 263 French jets. Compare that with 30 Vampires, 235 Hunters, 110 Canberras, 292 Gnats/Ajeets, 144 Jaguars and 25 Sea Harriers, along with 143 (so far) Hawks currently being built, supplied by or built under licence from the UK (989 aircraft), which really does beg the question as to why India was put in Germany's marketing territory and not the UK's. Mind, even that pales against the numbers of Soviet/Russian jets supplied to India over the years- nearly 1000 MiG-21s alone.
And let's not forget that France has ended up as the leader in much of European aerospace because their view of a collaborative project is 'our design, our test programme, our factory, and you can build some small parts to go on it', which was one reason why the French left the Eurofighter project. The one exception was the Jaguar, which the French government denigrated at every opportunity in order to promote the Mirage F.1.
Last edited by Martin the Martian; 3rd Feb 2012 at 15:11.
Reason: addition of text