Dassault Rafale EG

The Rafale EG is the designation of the single-seat Rafale built or adapted for the Hellenic Air Force (Polemikí Aeroporía), paired with the two-seat Rafale DG. Of the 24 Rafales Greece has received, 18 are single-seat EGs and six are two-seat DGs; all were delivered to the F3R standard. The figure of 24 is the Greek total (EG plus DG), not the total for this version.

The order grew out of tension with Turkey in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean in 2020. In September that year Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the purchase of 18 Rafales. To speed up delivery, the deal combined six new-build aircraft with twelve second-hand aircraft taken from the French Air and Space Force inventory, which in return received an additional order for new aircraft. According to Milavia, those twelve used jets were ten single-seat Rafale Cs and two two-seat Rafale Bs. Early reports spoke of ten new Rafales and eight used F1 and F2 standard jets, a split that was not confirmed. The Greek parliament approved the purchase in January 2021, and the government-to-government contract was signed in Athens on 25 January 2021. Including weapons, initial support, pilot and technician training and infrastructure at Tanagra, the package cost about 2.5 billion euros according to several sources (the English Wikipedia gives 2.4 billion). A separate deal worth about 400 million euros covered long-range Meteor air-to-air missiles and the adaptation to the Rafale of the MICA missiles, SCALP cruise missiles and Exocet anti-ship missiles already in Greek service.

On 11 September 2021, at the Thessaloniki International Fair, Mitsotakis announced six more new Rafales to complete a 24-aircraft squadron. The second contract was signed in March 2022, for about 1.09 billion euros more. The first Greek Rafale was handed over on 21 July 2021 at Dassault's flight test centre in Istres, and it was a two-seater. The first six aircraft stayed in France for pilot training. On 19 January 2022 they took off from Istres and flew to Greece without air-to-air refuelling. Escorted by three Mirage 2000-5s, they made a low pass over the Acropolis and landed at Tanagra. They were four single-seaters, coded 410 to 413, and two two-seaters (401 and 402). Six new aircraft followed from the summer of 2022, and the last six used ones in 2023.

The EGs serve with 332 Squadron "Geraki" (Hawk) of 114 Combat Wing at Tanagra, the base that has housed Greece's Dassault fighters since the Mirage F1 arrived in 1975. The squadron was formed on 11 August 1989 with Mirage 2000s, and when the Rafales arrived it flew about 16 single-seat Mirage 2000EGs and two 2000BG two-seaters. The Rafales replaced them, so the EG in practice succeeds the Mirage 2000EG. In September 2023 the squadron reached full operational capability with the first 18 aircraft, and the type officially entered service that month. The six aircraft of the second contract were delivered in just three months, between October 2024 and January 2025. The last was a new single-seater coded 457, received at Mérignac in December 2024. On 9 January 2025 it landed at Tanagra after a non-stop flight from Bordeaux and was handed over to 332 Squadron, completing Greece's 24 Rafales.

For the Hellenic Air Force, the EG combines air defence, deep strike and anti-ship attack in one aircraft. The Meteor gives the Greek Rafale an air-to-air reach that Greek media highlight against Turkish air power, while the SCALP and Exocet give it stand-off strike capability over land and sea. In December 2024 Mitsotakis said the 24 Rafales, together with the coming F-35s, met the country's immediate needs. Even so, in 2024 Athens was reported to be considering six to twelve more Rafales, and Greek authorities have considered up to ten more, paid for by selling their Mirage 2000-5s, to form a second squadron. In April 2026 President Macron offered Greece a discount on an equivalent number of new Rafales if it transferred its Mirage 2000-5s to Ukraine. No expansion had been signed by then.

The sale also had an effect in France: the twelve aircraft transferred to Greece came out of the French Air and Space Force fleet, and in 2021 Paris ordered twelve new Rafales to replace them.