How big is the Dassault Rafale?

The Rafale is a mid-size fighter, clearly smaller than an F-15 or a Su-30 and very close to the Eurofighter Typhoon. Its 15.27 m length and 10.90 m wingspan (including the missile rails at the wingtips) trace back to an original requirement: the naval version had to fit in the elevators and hangars of the carrier Charles de Gaulle, whose dimensions capped the aircraft's maximum size. The 5.34 m height and the 45.7 m² delta wing complete a compact airframe in which the canards positioned ahead of the wing provide control at low speed.

Empty weight is around 10 t (somewhat more on the naval version, reinforced for catapult launches), and maximum takeoff weight reaches 24.5 t. With 14 hardpoints (13 on the Rafale M), the aircraft can carry up to 9.5 t of external load, a notable figure for its size that explains its use as a multirole platform: Mica and Meteor air-to-air missiles, AASM guided bombs, the Scalp cruise missile and even the ASMP-A nuclear weapon. The 4.7 t of internal fuel is supplemented by external tanks of 1,250 and 2,000 liters.

Compared with the Typhoon (15.96 m long and 10.95 m wingspan), the Rafale is only slightly shorter and has a somewhat smaller wing, but both share the delta-canard layout with two engines. The single-engine F-16 measures 15.06 m long with a 9.96 m wingspan, while the F-35A reaches 15.7 m and 10.7 m. The Rafale thus sits at the center of the mid-size fighter segment, with the advantage that its contained size eases operations from a carrier deck and from austere bases without giving up a weapons load typical of larger aircraft.