The Airbus A330MRTT was an important part of the Venezuelan air force expansion plan, they were required to support the growing combat aircraft fleet which included the RAFALE, Su-30 and Su-35. The airplanes were purchased in parallel with a large batch of A330's for Viasa with maintenance provided by the airline.
Fuerza Aérea Venezolana - Rafale B
The Venezuelan air force projected a requirement for 96 medium multi role combat aircraft to replace the F-16A, VF-5A and the Mirage 50EV, types which had been in frontline service for more than thirty and were having serious maintanance problems and were completely outdated by 2015. For the contest six fighter aircraft were considered: Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon, Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon, Mikoyan MiG-35, and Saab JAS 39 Gripen. After an extensive and time consuming evaluation process the Dassault Rafale was chosen in October 2015 as the new fighter, mainly because of its superiority over the other contenders and do to Dassaults willingness to allow Venezuela to produce the aircraft under license and give a full technology transfer. the first batch of 24 aircraft (18 single seaters & 6 two seaters) was to be procured directly from Dassault and delivered ahead of schedule to start training and familiarisation as soon as possible the rest would be manufactured by VAI in Venezuela.
Due to Venezuelas increasing importance in the region and the growing threat of the chinese backed countries like Cuba, Bolivia & Nicaragua the Venezuelan government decided to expand the armed forces together with other countries in the region such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia in order to answer the threat that the large amount of chinese weapons supplied to this countries posed but also to defend themselves from leftist groups backed by this countries.
Because of this expansion the initial order for 96 Rafale's was gradually increased until it eventualy reached 240 aircraft making it the largest military contract in the countries history. Another important part of the expansion was the development of the carrier task force and it was decided that to reduce cost the Naval aviation would use the Rafale M, the first order for 42 aircraft was placed along with the air force order and as the aircraft carriers entered service more aicraft were ordered eventually reaching a total of 120 aircraft. Combined the air force and navy fleets have 360 Rafale's making Venezuela the largest Rafale operator.
Fuerza Aérea Venezolana - Embraer EMB314 Super Tucano
