French manufacturer Dassault Aviation has signed a Rafale F4 standard development contract with the French Armed Forces, which will offer the platform a host of new radar and connected capabilities.
The contract, officially signed by Florence Parly, French Minister of the Armed Forces, during a visit to Dassault's Mérignac facility on 14 January, is in line with targets laid out by the French government in its 2019-2025 Military Planning Law programme.
Chief among the new standards will be improvements to the aircraft's fire protection and avoidance system, frontal optronics, TALIOS nacelle and the RBE2 electronic scanning radar, according to a statement from the