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he French Joint Staff on June 5 published footage showing a Rafale fighter conducting a close-range visual interception of a Russian Aerospace Forces Su-35 long range fighter,  in a tense encounter over the Baltic Sea. The engagement, which took place on June 2, occurred after the Su-35 was deployed to escort five other Russian aircraft, including a An-30 reconnaissance and survey platform, two transports, and Su-24M and Su-34 strike fighters. Two Rafales operating as part of the Baltic Air Policing mission scrambled from Siauliai Air Base in northern Lithuania, and alongside Swedish Gripens jointly intercepted the six Russian aircraft. While the Rafale is the most capable fighter type in French service, and is expected to remain so until the 2050s, the Su-35 is currently considered the third most capable fighter type in Russian service after the fifth generation Su-57, and the much heavier and faster MiG-31BM. 

Despite having a lower standing within the air force of its country of origin, the Su-35 has distinct advantages over the Rafale in most major areas of its performance. Its flight performance is overwhelmingly superior at all speeds, with the aircraft able to carry much larger payloads, having a combat radius over 50 percent wider even if the Rafale uses external fuel tanks, and being far faster and more manoeuvrable. The AL-41F-1S engines are the most powerful ever integrated onto a fourth generation fighter, with comparable thrust to the F119s powering the U.S. F-22 fighter, and benefit from three-dimensional thrust-vectoring nozzles that allow for extreme post-stall manoeuvres such as the Cobra and Kulbit. The Rafale’s engines, by contrast, are considered underpowered, which result in a very poor thrust/weight ratio when operating with a weapons load, and moreso if carrying external fuel. The Su-35’s size allows it to integrate much longer ranged R-37M air-to-air missiles, which have approximately double the engagement range of the Rafale’s Meteor missiles.

The Rafale was designed as a relatively lightweight fighter, with design choices having minimised its operational costs and maintenance needs, although availability rates have still remained far from exceptional both in France and among foreign operators. The fighter’ smaller size has restricted it to integrating a radar around one quarter of the size of that of the Su-35, and with around one third the power, which provides the Russian fighter with significant advantages in terms of situational awareness and electronic warfare potential. The fact that the Su-35’s Irbis-E electronically scanned array radar is mounted on a mechanical head also provides a far wider field of view than any other known fighter’s radar type. The Rafale’s lightweight design also seriously constraints both its range and its weapons payload, and means that any additional weaponry or external fuel carried will have a much greater impact on its range and flight performance than is the case for heavyweight fighters. 

Rafales assumed a new rotation for Baltic Air Policing in the first week of April, arriving at Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania, before engaging Russian Su-30SM2 fighters, as well as an accompanying Il-20M electronic intelligence aircraft, in mid-April. They have been involved in multiple engagements with Russian fighters, in most cases Su-30SM2 fighters. Having been designed decades earlier, many of the Su-30SM2’s systems evolved through several generations of upgrades, where the Su-35 by contrast saw these systems integrated from the beginning allowing for greater efficiency, a lower weight, less complexity, and somewhat better overall performance. While the Su-35 is not known to have ever lost an air-to-air engagement, and achieved multiple successes in air-to-air combat in the Ukrainian theatre, the Rafale was put to its sole high intensity combat test in May 2025 during which between one and four of the aircraft in Indian service shot down by Pakistan Air Force J-10C fighters. It is notable that neither the Su-35 nor the Rafale is considered highly competitive outside Europe, with Chinese and U.S. fifth generation fighters such as the J-20 and F-35 being overwhelmingly more capable, while Russia, and much moreso France, remain years behind in developing post-fourth generation combat jets. 

Original article: militarywatchmagazine.com