Only one air-to-air kill was recorded by a Vautour; the type was used more for bombing and ground strafing and was reportedly considered by Israel to be comparable to the Soviet-built Ilyushin Il-28 medium bombers used by its regional adversaries.

[1] In regards to aviation, this task had been made substantially more difficult due to setbacks incurred by the German occupation of France during the conflict; nearly all aircraft factories had been destroyed while individual design teams had scattered, meaning that there was little to no continuity of work and that the nation would be basically starting from scratch.

[2] According to aviation authors Bill Gunston and Peter Gilchrist, "It would be fair to claim that in the early 1950s the Vautour was the most promising twin-jet warplane in Western Europe".

Although it had been a moderately competent aircraft when it had been originally developed, the Vautour never benefitted from the adoption of sufficiently powerful engines, even though suitable powerplants did become available over time.

As an interceptor, it was soon outclassed by the newer Dassault Mirage III, while in its roles either as a bomber or attack aircraft, the lack of an advanced navigation/attack system became a crippling limitation upon its effectiveness.

[7] According to author Sylvia K. Crosbie, a major motivating factor in the Israeli decision to procure the Vautour was to make a political statement to the country's neighbours, viewing the aircraft as a counterpart, and a response, to the Soviet-built Ilyushin Il-28 medium bombers, which had been acquired by Egypt.

The Vautour was used as a stop-gap measure as the airborne carrier of France's independent nuclear deterrent while the more capable follow-on aircraft was being selected and developed; its performance in this role was typically thought to be limited at best.

According to aviation author Bill Gunston, the unbuilt 'stretched' Super Vautour variant would have featured an increased combat radius of 1,700 miles as well as the ability to attain at least Mach 0.9.

[10] The Vautour IIB bomber lacked any sort of radar arrangement or many of the contemporary navigational aids and attack systems that were installed upon several aircraft performing the same role during this era.

The Vautour IIN interceptor model was not as restrictive, having some capacity to conduct both nighttime and adverse weather operations, having been furnished with a radar system.

During its service in Israel, where the weather of the local climate was generally favorable and daylight missions commonplace, the Vautour's lack of advanced targeting and navigation equipment was found to be not a crippling limitation.

[12] To address a deficiency of the Vautour that had been determined mid-service life, this being its limited range in comparison to contemporary strategic bombers, considerable emphasis was placed upon the introduction and perfection of aerial refueling techniques in the AdA.

[11] However, their use in the strategic bomber role was determined to be less than optimal; allegedly, the Vautour's performance was commonly considered to be marginal and suitable for use as a stop gap measure at best.

[14] During early 1957, the type was officially selected to replace the British-built de Havilland Mosquito then in service with the Israeli Air Force (IAF).

[2] Their entry into service had allegedly been delayed by several months due to political issues between Israel and France, which was resolved when permission to commence operations was granted by the latter.

[2] Crosbie described the Vautour as being "Israel's most important delivery system at the time", also observing the type to possess the capability to launch attacks upon the majority of Egyptian targets while carrying a payload of 6,000-8,000lb bombs.

Likewise, in the electronic warfare mission, the aircraft proved effective at disabling Egyptian air defenses via onboard jamming equipment.

[2] During the Six-Day War, Israeli Vautours engaged in air-to-air combat with Iraqi Air Force aircraft while in the process of performing raiding missions against H-3 airfield in Iraq's western region.