Most of the Rafales currently in service are built to the F2 standard, which adds the ability to carry and use precision ground attack weapons.
Since 2008, all Rafales have been delivered in the
F3 standard, which adds the ability to carry French ASMP-A air-launched nuclear missiles, allowing the Rafale to replace the Mirage 2000N in that role. Other modifications include full integration with the Reco NG reconnaissance pod, implementation of all currently planned modes for the RBE2 radar, antiship attack with the Exocet or ANF, the Gerfaut helmet-mounted sight, and support for an improved tanker pack.
The batch ordered in 2009 will also have improved protection suites and Thales’ RBE2-AA AESA radar, replacing the mechanically-scanned RBE2 array on previous aircraft. Full integration with Thales’ Damocles surveillance and targeting pod was expected to be complete by 2010, and Damocles-equipped Rafales were used over Libya in 2011.
Efforts to include MBDA’s Meteor long-range air-air missiles are ongoing. Some sources refer to Rafales fielded with all of these modifications as
Rafale 'F4s', but the type has not been formally defined yet.
Aviation Week’s Air and Cosmos reports that France is developing active stealth for the Rafale 'F5' (2 versions hence).Bill Sweetman explains:
“Active cancellation means preventing a radar from detecting a target by firing back a deception signal with the same frequency as the reflection, but precisely one-half wavelength out of phase with it. Result: the returned energy reaching the radar has no frequency and can’t be detected. It’s quite as difficult as it sounds…. This may not be the first French attempt to implement AC on the Rafale. At the Paris air show in 1997, I interviewed a senior engineer at what was then Dassault Electronique….
France’s Rafale Fighters: Au Courant In Time?