For the first time, the French experimented with 2 1150 litres of conformal tanks on Rafale in 2001, but the thought was abandoned. Now it returns as the most visual component of Rafale announced version F5. The tanks were shown on 1 of the machines at the exhibition of the French air-space forces. The usage of tanks allows either to release 2 sub-wing brackets for additional weapons and at the same time lower the radar signature, or to usage classical and conformal tanks which translates into an increase in the aircraft's operational radius. In both cases, this increases the flexibility to usage this machine.
