What about uprated/new engines?
Well, there are two variants of the uprated M88.
When the engine was introduced, development continued of course.
That is where the 9T figure came up that was an early UAE goal, their
fear running along the
hot temperatures eating power line. Since however,
France opened BA 104 in Al-Dhafra and Rafales have shown they can
do the job ... including daily sorties against Daesh with heavy SCALPs.
Safran felt confident that they could reach 9T for a similar if bigger motor.
The bigger is not a huge problem though, still fitting inside the airplane if
with a new center of gravity and so new command and control "laws" but ...
you'd also need new enlarged intakes to feed that motor enough air to reach
that power output. And that is a bigger bug, requiring a full re-design of the
front of the plane. When you consider that one of the Rafale's strengths is
its high coefficient aerodynamics ( finesse, etc ), it becomes very touchy.
Two decisions came out of this situation. First, content with the power it had,
the AdlA ( / DGA ) asked for more durability at ISO power instead
( requiring no changes ).
Second, possible use of a 9T version was set back to the 2026+ MLU. If, as
most modern jets, a weight increase happens and makes a 9T output important,
the re-design could be piled on with an evolved cell with extra stealth. Doing
both at the same time saves energy and money.
Since then, Safran kept working and are now suggesting an 83 kN variant
[ 8.3 T ]
without new intakes gaining from the original 75 kN and supposedly as durable.
For France, the need is not sufficient to warrant the change but depending on
what price tag the ex-SNECMA puts on it, other customers could easily choose
to have that version in their Rafales. India and UAE have a possible synergy there.
That's pretty much where things stand today.
I hope it helps, Tay.