The French Rafale fighter chose by Serbia to order instead of the Su-30SM from Russia. It is known that Belgrade will initially order a batch of 12, then they can increase the quantity to buy more.
French Rafale fighters continue to win big in the export market even though they are currently the most expensive 4.5-generation fighter in the world with prices ranging around $200 million each.
The Serbian authorities announced that they will order 12 Rafale fighters from France. Initially, the Serbian authorities intended to sign a contract with Russia for the supply of 12 Su-30SM fighters, but after final consideration, Belgrade decided to buy the French aircraft.
According to La Tribune, Serbia bought new fighters to gradually replace the MiG-21, Soko G-4 Super Gale and Soko J-22 Orao fighters, and even the MiG-29 currently in service in this country.
It is not yet clear what the exact reason for the choice of French fighter over Russian aircraft is, however, experts believe that the current Western sanctions imposed on Russia are the cause Serbia to decide to cancel the Su-30SM.
Regarded as the quintessence of the French, the Dassault Rafale is a highly versatile and efficient twin-engined delta wing multi-role fighter. They are equipped with a variety of weapons with a total weight of more than 9 tons of weapons, surpassing the MiG-35 and Su-35, which only have about 8 tons of weapons.
Rafale is currently the main fighter of the French Air Force, manufactured by Dassault Aviation, one of the oldest aircraft manufacturers in the world. Rafale served in the French Air Force since the early 2000s.
The Rafale can perform reconnaissance, air superiority, ground and water attack and tactical nuclear bombing missions. This type of aircraft has been in combat for the first time in Libya, Syria and achieved high results.
Observers say that the Rafale surpasses the MiG-35, in certain situations they are even better than the Russian Su-35. The weakness of this type of fighter is that it is as expensive as the US F-35.