Rafale M Role Demo

The Rafale M Role Demo is the French Navy’s fast-jet tactical demonstration, typically flown as a two-ship (duo) by operational pilots from Rafale Marine squadrons at BAN Landivisiau. The display compresses real-world procedures—intercepts, low-level attack profiles, defensive breaks and high-energy rejoins—into a tight, crowd-friendly routine that underlines the Rafale’s “omnirole” agility.

Unlike a full-time aerobatic team, Role Demo crews remain combat-ready within their flotillas, so aircraft and pilots rotate as operations permit. The duo profile is most common at French shows (occasionally expanding to a four-ship fly-by for special events), highlighting carrier-borne capability and the Navy’s integration with the carrier Charles de Gaulle.

Carrier-borne variant. The Rafale M adapts the Rafale airframe for CATOBAR deck operations with a strengthened structure, a longer nose-gear leg (for catapult attitude), a larger tailhook and an in-built boarding ladder. These changes add roughly 500 kg compared with the land-based Rafale C.

Avionics & systems. A canard-delta design powered by twin Safran M88 turbofans, Rafale integrates the RBE2 AESA radar and the integrated SPECTRA electronic-warfare suite, enabling rapid role changes between air-to-air and air-to-surface tasks.

Interoperability. The Rafale M routinely embarks on the carrier Charles de Gaulle and, in notable trials, operated from the USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2008 during a French–US carrier air-wing interoperability exercise.

Two Rafale M prototypes flew in 1991 and 1993, proving the carrier-borne concept through catapult trials at NAS Lakehurst and deck trials on Foch. The first frontline squadron to convert—Flottille 12F—received its Rafales in 2001, with the type declared operational in 2004. Today, fighter flotillas 11F, 12F and 17F operate Rafale M from Landivisiau and the carrier Charles de Gaulle.

Operational deployments have ranged from high-end air defence to strike and reconnaissance in theaters such as the Mediterranean and Middle East. Demonstrations at home events provide a public window into these capabilities, with the Role Demo compressing tactics—high-alpha control, rapid energy changes and precision formation work—into a tight sequence.

• Rafale M is the only non-US fighter type cleared to operate from US Navy CATOBAR carriers, proven during 2008 cross-decking with USS Theodore Roosevelt.
• Landivisiau is home to fighter flotillas 11F, 12F and 17F—Role Demo crews are drawn from these operational units.
• “Omnirole” isn’t marketing fluff: Rafale can swap tasking in-flight, aided by its RBE2 AESA radar and SPECTRA EW suite.
• The duo profile often simulates an intercept followed by an air-to-surface push, complete with defensive flares and high-G breaks.
• Carrier operations use US-standard steam catapults on Charles de Gaulle, keeping French Navy procedures interoperable with USN decks.