Dassault Rafale - Updates and Discussion

Sathya said:
Are there any plans for Naval F5 Rafale?

Is it too early to ask?

Another question are there any plans for Naval SCAF?
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If F5 keep the same frame, then we all will see Rafale M F5.

If all goes well I will have an appointment with a previous chief of staff of French air forme in july the 14th. I hope to have some answer about F5.

SCAF is studied to be on board of next gen french carrier, and able to deliver the next gen nuclear airborne missile. It's non negociable.
 
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A retired test pilot who took part in India's evaluation of the Rafale recounted the episode of arriving at and returning to LEH, a runway located at almost 11,000 ft from memory. The aim was to arrive, park, switch off the engines, then switch them back on a little later when cold, and take off again, all within 2 hours, otherwise you had to wait 48 hours before taking off again.

Why 2 hours? Because after this time, the human body begins a phase of adaptation to high altitude and you have to wait 48 hours for the body to readapt before setting off again.

So, under hangarette, he starts up in right/left click mode. This is the system that automatically manages the whole system, from starting the APU to starting the right engine, then the left. Easier to start than a car.

So the right engine starts up, but he realises that the rpm isn't rising properly, the air flow isn't sufficient and the temperature fluctuates a lot, until it reaches the maximum in the chamber, before dropping back down and so on.

Nevertheless, the system considers the right-hand engine as started and starts the procedure on the left, which starts from the first fart. He then switches the right engine to ‘ventilation’ mode to bring the temperature down, then restarts it, and there it goes again.

There was a 5-knot tailwind under the hanger. The engine started thanks to the injection of pressurised air (basically like blowing on a fan). But at altitude, it's inevitably a bit more sluggish. If there's also a wind blowing in the other direction, it doesn't help. The fact that he started the right engine, even if it was a bit sluggish, must have ‘protected’ the left engine from the incoming flow, which then started much better. And then the same thing happened when the right engine was restarted, protected by the left.

In the end, it started, but now that there's a high-altitude starting system, the start should be more robust.
 
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France demonstrates operational resilience during Agile Combat Employment​

RAMSTEIN, Germany – In early November, the French Air and Space Force launched an Agile Combat Employment (ACE), deploying Rafale fighter jets to bases in Germany and Croatia practicing deployment, bed-down and operation of a fighter element from a remote site.

It’s a great opportunity to gather further experience with the ACE concept under NATO’s chain of command
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Three Rafale fighter jets from Saint-Dizier Air Base touched down at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, home to the U.S. 52nd Fighter Wing operating F-16s. Applying the ACE concept, the French fighters used U.S. ground support facilities and infrastructure ranging from flightline services and refueling to rearming and mission planning.

A further Rafale detachment landed at Zagreb International Airport, Croatia, to practice the same concept with the Croatian armed forces. “It’s a great opportunity to gather further experience with the ACE concept under NATO’s chain of command,” said a French detachment commander.

The deployments were conducted with a temporary transfer of authority to NATO, playing a full integration of French aircraft within the Alliance chain of command, to train pilots and mechanics as well as the command and control procedures.
During the one-week deployment the French Rafale jets joined Romanian F-16, Spanish F-18, enabling aircraft and France’s ‘MAMBA SAMPT air defence system over Romania to train joint air power over NATO’s eastern flank. This multi-domain mission demonstrated the agility of the Alliance and its members.

NATO Allies are increasingly embracing this operational scheme of manoeuvre designed to improve resilience and survivability. The concept envisages generating air combat power from both home bases and geographically dispersed locations. It can be used proactively or reactively involving main or deployed operating bases or contingency locations.

Overall, the ACE programme is designed as a plug and play concept for commanders and planners to use to increase survivability while maintaining uninterrupted operational capability.
 
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Avenir du Rafale, Ukraine, Europe de la Défense : le PDG de Dassault Aviation se livre

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

The future of the Rafale, Ukraine, European defence: the CEO of Dassault Aviation speaks out
‘France masters all the technologies. We know how to make combat aircraft and the weapons they carry. We know how to make submarines, aircraft carriers and nuclear weapons,’ he said in an interview with Les Echos newspaper, published on Thursday 30 January. Referring to General de Gaulle's commitment in the 1950s to turning the country towards sovereignty, Eric Trappier believes that the issue of defence today is still political ‘but not technological, because our country has learned to work with more limited financial resources’, with ‘strategic partners’ such as Thales and Safran that enable us to compete with the American behemoths. ‘We're 10 times smaller than Lockheed Martin, but we fly 3,000 aircraft in 90 countries,’ he says.

His long-term goal is to develop the Scaf, the European fighter of the future. Faced with this project, Eric Trappier believes that Dassault must not lose its way in this challenge between European players. ‘The important thing is to have skills, know-how and a backbone. You can then open up to partnerships, but you mustn't give up your backbone. If we are not working alone on the SCAF, the European fighter of the future, it's not because we wouldn't have been able to do it alone, but it's because the States have asked us to try to work together’, he comments.

Standard F5: the ‘new generation’ Rafale arrives

In the meantime, the Rafale is continuing to evolve, with new commercial prospects. With Serbia's order for 12 aircraft, Dassault now has 507 Rafales on order, including 273 for export.

‘We are now at more than 500 orders and this figure will continue to rise, because the Rafale is a multi-purpose aircraft that has never stopped evolving and modernising, and this will continue,’ says Eric Trappier.

Dassault's flagship will be upgraded to the F5 standard, a modernised version of the fighter that will include new radar and electronic warfare systems, new optronic sensors and integration of the ASN4G nuclear missile. The Rafale F5 will also be able to be supported by a stealth combat drone, which will accompany the fighter in its operations by 2030.

In his view, this development is supported by observations in the Ukrainian theatre. ‘Today, drones are making their mark, but they are not going to replace human-piloted fighter aircraft, which will still be around in 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years' time. The machine can help man to calculate, but nothing can replace the perception of man at the heart of a combat zone’, he believes.

Between the modernisation of the Rafale and the development of the European fighter of the future, ‘we're in for the long haul’, reminds Eric Trappier. ‘Until then, the Rafale's career will continue.
 
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randomradio said:
All F4s then.
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Yes, but Dassault has always said that ‘native’ F4s would be upgradable to F5s.
And if it took 3 years to get an aircraft on which Dassault is capable of developing the UAE standard, it's because we're in a situation similar to that of the Indian ISE, which was close to F4.1, and now we must be close to F5.1.
Thank you India and UAE.
 
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Picdelamirand-oil said:
Yes, but Dassault has always said that ‘native’ F4s would be upgradable to F5s.
And if it took 3 years to get an aircraft on which Dassault is capable of developing the UAE standard, it's because we're in a situation similar to that of the Indian ISE, which was close to F4.1, and now we must be close to F5.1.
Click to expand...

So Any plans for GAN AESA Radar
Like APG 85 of F 35
 
The Rafale will soon be equipped with an improved OSF, with the Direction Générale de l'Armement having recently carried out trials on a new optic on the OSF's infrared channel, which is expected to improve the ‘image quality of the night identification function’.

This upgrade will be accompanied by the integration of Link 16 Block 2, CONTACT digital software radio and the TRAGEDAC system (which will give the Rafale a passive target location capability by networking aircraft in the same patrol) and CAPOEIRA (for enhanced connectivity for Rafale upgrades). What's more, the development of an anti-radar missile is also under way, as part of the ‘Armement Air-Surface Futur’ major effect programme, which ‘meets the need for a capability to neutralise short- and medium-range surface-to-air threats, an essential prerequisite for the Rafale's first entry capability’.
 
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