I went to sleep when you guys were discussing. Good thing Expert and Cocoon took over.
Now... yeap. your aircraft needs some work. Getting LASM would help you. One of my main aircraft is also Rafale M -VA- and it's at level 7. My LASM is at level 4.
My parts are:
Enhanced Engine Compressor L || Enhanced Propulsion Engine || Pitch+ L || Roll+ L || Advanced Propulsion (MSL) L || Advanced Warhead (MSL) L || Advanced Mobile Fin (MSL) L
Datalink is Homing+.
With this setup, at least I can have fun and earn a lot of credits and that's enough for me.
If you want, you can swap anti-stall and cockpit armor with higher max speed. This could take a different approach on enemies, like more looping and high-G turns in one area to attack multiple enemies since you're more prone to stall. Also, having armour would let you tank more hits, whereas flying at high speed more often would let you avoid taking any hits. If you still have room after equipping Enhanced Engine Compressor L, Enhanced Engine Nozzle L, or Enhanced Propulsion Engine (whichever is better for you), you can move for better Pitch+ or Roll+ or even both. If you have room even with Pitch+ L and Roll+ L, you can choose to further improve speed or improve your weapons instead.
Since we're talking about speed to everything, you can give it a try.