Iraq has plans to order at least 14 4.5-generation Dassault Rafale fighter jets from France. But why did it choose this particular aircraft, and what primary role does Baghdad envisage it serving?
The deal was first reported on in February by Defense News. Baghdad reportedly plans to pay $240 million for the jets in oil. Other than that, there aren’t many details.
It’s unclear if Iraq is seeking the latest F4 variant or the F3R. It’s also unclear if it is buying brand new jets or second-hand jets or, as Greece has done, a combination of both.
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The more general question of why Iraq wants these jets is also unclear. After all, the country already has 34 F-16C/D Block 52s.
For now, and most likely for the foreseeable future, the Iraqi Air Force will most likely continue focusing on targeting Islamic State (ISIS) remnants across the country. For this, Iraq requires additional turboprop aircraft — to improve its limited intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) gathering capabilities — and cheap but efficient armed drones rather than expensive, sophisticated, high-performance 4.5-generation fighters.
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Iraq may be procuring a modest fleet of Rafales to serve primarily as interceptors or simply to have another source for fighter jets other than the United States.
France will most likely prove willing to sell these jets. It sold Iraq a large fleet of Dassault Mirage F1s in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2011, long after all those Mirages were destroyed and the Saddam Hussein regime deposed, Paris offered to sell Baghdad 18 retrofitted Mirage F1s for $1 billion.
However, other countries might protest if the Rafales come armed with the Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missiles.
The primary reason Iraq would seek Rafales for use as interceptors rather than additional F-16s is because its F-16s only came armed with short-range AIM-7 Sparrow and AIM-9 air-to-air missiles and not the AIM-120 AMRAAM, which has a range comparable to the Meteor. This puts Iraqi F-16s in the same category as their Egyptian counterparts.
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