Rafale fighters could follow french Navy and be based in Abu Dhabi

The UAE's foreign minister has confirmed that the UAE and France are continuing negotiations on UAE's potential purchase of French Rafale fighter planes,

“It will take a bit more time” to complete the talks, Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahayan told Agence France Press ahead of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to the UAE for talks on bilateral military ties to coincide with this week’s opening of the French naval base in Abu Dhabi.

A deal would be a major boost for the plane’s maker Dassault, which has yet to sell any Rafales for export. The UAE said in June 2008 that it was “seriously” considering replacing its fleet of 60 Mirage 2000 combat planes with Rafale.

Dassault previously held talks with Saudi Arabia on a possible deal, but the Saudis eventually opted to buy Eurofighter jets from Britain (see story in issue one of Arabian Aerospace). Dassault is also expected to re-enter a race to win a 12-billion-dollar fighter plane deal in India after it was disqualified for failure to meet technical requirements.

France is a leading military supplier to the UAE, which bought more than 400 Leclerc tanks from French firm GIAT in 1994.

Rafale is a twin-jet combat aircraft capable of carrying out a wide range of short- and long-range missions, including ground and sea attack, air defence and air superiority, reconnaissance, and high-accuracy strike or nuclear strike deterrence.

The aircraft has been developed for the French Air Force and Navy. 61 aircraft were ordered (36 for the air force and 25 for the navy).