Will the Rafale ever land in Colombia? If this were the case – but it is still far from being so – it would be the return of Dassault Aviation to the South American continent, where the different versions of the Mirage have long been the heyday of the South American air forces (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela). The Colombian Air Force (FAC) still had Mirage 5 in service until 2011.
Other Rafale prospects now seem much more promising, such as Serbia, which could also acquire 12 new Rafale by the end of the year. However, in Colombia, Dassault Aviation has sent an offer to sell 15 new Rafale (+ 9 as an option) to replace around twenty antediluvian Kfir (“lion cub” in Hebrew), an Israeli fighter-bomber designed from the Mirage 5 and delivered to Bogotá from 1975.
A land hostile to the French defense industry
Initially, the Colombian Air Force was more interested in second-hand Rafales, but France had to decline this request, due to a lack of stock in the French Air Force, which has already sold 24 aircraft to Greece, then to Croatia. Despite a marked interest in the Rafale by the Colombian Air Force, the tricolor plane did not seem to be the favoriteahead of Sunday’s election of Colombia’s first leftist president, Gustavo Petro. Bogotá naturally leaned towards F-16s. Finally, Saab had not said its last word either by offering Colombia Gripen E manufactured in its big neighbor, Brazil.
Commercial relations between Paris and Bogotá are on the other hand almost nil in the field of armaments. Colombia bought from France, yet in the top five of the world’s arms exporting countries, for only 19.4 million euros in weapons between 2011 and 2020 (1.9 million per year on average). In short, only crumbs… In addition, all the projects (spy satellite, frigates) fell through. In all, Paris accepted 117 export licenses between 2015 and 2020 to Colombia. Will the election of Gustavo Petro change the situation? This is what we hope for in Paris while remaining very cautious at this stage.
