As reported in time for Kuwait, which is driving EF upgrades just as Qatar and India did for Rafale.
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As reported in time for Kuwait, which is driving EF upgrades just as Qatar and India did for Rafale.
The Gripen C, with a classical radar is Meteor qualified.Efficient, but range limited compared to a pulse doppler radar, but still can fire Meteor?
In short, Rafale needed AESA, while others didn't!
The RBE2 PESA can detect a fighter at a +/- 100Km range. Too short for a Meteor if the target don't escape in the opposite sens.
But imagine against a tanker... the range is far greater, and in this case it's bingo.
And don't foget the other planes and the L16.
in short, Rafale is AESA equipped since 5 years when the other european competitors aren't.
Efficient, but range limited compared to a pulse doppler radar, but still can fire Meteor?
In short, Rafale needed AESA, while others didn't!
In short, and i spoke about that with SWAF commander, MS20 can manage meteor. "Of course pilots expect a longer ranhe radar, bt they always want more". Aka not at its longest ranges
Interesting article about FCAS and Rafale future. For english version please click on the link "restless technophile". Rafale WILL have cheed k antennas and be part of SCAF.
Le SCAF raconté par ses concepteurs
Le SCAF raconté par ses concepteurs
The SCAF told by its designers
Posted By: Yves PAGOTon:January 31, 2019In: Military Aviation , UncategorizedNo Comments
Dassault Aviation's vision of a combat drone and a new generation of onboard aircraft, taking off from a new aircraft carrier. (two parallel catapults)
During the Lancaster House Agreements in 1990, it was jointly decided to launch a European Future Air Combat System program, called "SCAF". Very quickly, this program was represented (but also confused with) by a largely autonomous stealth drone combat program, the SCAF-DP (demonstration phase). At the same time, a consortium of European countries led by Dassault Aviation on our side of the Channel, and BAE on the other, was developing demonstrators of combat drones, the "nEUROn" and the "Taranis" respectively.
Quickly, several points of friction appeared, among others the partial disinterest of BAE for the stealth drone, following the purchase of the F-35. Moreover, from the beginning, the general engineers of the armament had made it clear that the SCAF would be a system of systems, and not simply a drone. The objective is to fight against denial of access networks by vector networks. On this subject, it is interesting, on the one hand, to see that software radios are now widespread in the framework of the Scorpion program and, on the other hand, the ESSOR European effort to define waveforms allowing standardization. data links.
In January 2017, Merkel and Macron gave new life to the project by deciding to design and jointly manufacture a new combat aircraft dedicated to SCAF, the Next Generation Fighter or New Generation Aircraft (ANGE). Recently there was a conference on this topic, which we were unable to attend. In a friendly way, a colleague has kindly given us his transcript.
An English version of this article, as well as other articles on SCAF , are available on the author's blog, https://therestlesstechnophile.com .
The Future Air Combat System project, or SCAF, is entering a new phase. It was launched jointly last April by Germany and France. Éric Trappier, president of Dassault Aviation, announced that a contract should be signed by the end of January with the aim of flying a piloted aircraft demonstrator by 2025. This is a major project, emblematic of the rapprochement between the two countries in the field of defense, rapprochement which was consecrated by the signing of a new bilateral treaty on January 22nd.
Beyond the political objectives, French and German seek to replace by 2040 their fleets of existing aircraft by a new system able to cope with the most successful air defenses. Unlike previous aeronautical projects in European cooperation, such as the Tornado or the Eurofighter, SCAF is not just about designing a combat aircraft. It aims first to establish a force architecture, consisting of planes, drones, tankers, radar planes but also ammunition, all networked to share information and react instantly to the opposing threat. which it is envisaged will also be very strongly connected. Indeed, the radars, command centers, Interceptors and surface-to-air missiles should all be connected and probably hardened against jamming. The war of the future will see confront this network of air defense to the offensive network of SCAF.
The project is currently in its definition phase. In France, General Jean Pascal Breton of the Air Force is at the head of this project. As this is a particularly technical area, the Directorate General of Armament is also strongly involved, under the direction of the Chief Engineer Philippe Koffi. They were present at the Innovation Defense Forum held in Paris at the end of November 2018. They gave a conference on the role of innovation in SCAF. Here is a transcript:
General Jean Pascal Breton :
The air combat system of the future SCAF is to come into service in 2040, 2040 is far away. It must be flexible and agile to be able to adapt permanently to the unexpected.
One of the ways to do this is to use a model of apps like on smartphones: you can install a new application in a few clicks, which is currently impossible on a fighter plane because it must be checked that any new software does not impact the flight systems for example, while these two software must communicate together. The SCAF will have to be architected to be able to integrate new applications by guaranteeing that they do not consume all the resources or the whole battery, to resume the telephone example.
Another way to innovate is the misuse of existing systems: for example, using the 16 link management equipment that equips our aircraft, we can divert it from its original role of pure data link and we to be used for training, by introducing dummy targets into the system, which allows the pilots to work and improve their reactivity in the interpretation and consequently the treatment of these.
An important aspect of innovation on SCAF will be networking: currently on Rafale the pilot is mainly using its own sensors and some information provided by the network. On the SCAF the proportion will be reversed. The management of the transfer of data by the network will be done independently of the pilot, who will see the merged data will thus supervise the whole process.
Our analysis of SCAF is as follows: the missions will be about the same, the missions of today. Threats, however, will have changed a lot. Long-range air defenses and denial of access will have spread, enemy planes will be stealthy, the enemy will have swarming and collaborative drones, hypervelocity missiles, an integrated land / sea / air / space maneuver, and cyber capabilities. If these capabilities are the prerogative of a few states today, tomorrow any actor, even private for cyber, will have some or all of these capabilities.
Faced with this, the SCAF provides a response in system, with different components. A cruise missile component will process targets with high added values. The strongly defended threats will be committed by "Remote carriers", drones capable of performing reconnaissance, jamming or strikes. Depending on the defense encountered by the system, it will send either its fast components or its stealth components to counteract it by adapting.
Interception and defense A / A will be carried out by an inhabited fighter jet, as well as specialized missions [NdlR: deterrence]. The pilot will bring his intelligence to the device, and will be the captain of this football team whose wingers will be the drones and the "Remote carrier".
[Editor's note: Airbus has released a video about his vision of SCAF, which illustrates what the General says:]
The 1 st circle of SCAF will be made of a Rafale in an enhanced version that will be replaced by a new term aircraft because there needs more stealth and more generation of energy that can provide the Burst in its current version. There will also be the "Remote Carriers" that will have to saturate the enemy defense, cruise missiles and perhaps a combat drone.
The 2 e circle will include satellites, aircraft refueling, radar aircraft, Navy ships, and the means of our allied forces, hence the importance of standardizing the data links with our allies.
The plane will also be shipped on aircraft carrier.
Weapon Engineer Philippe Koffi:
To arrive at this system in 2040, the innovation will have to be carried out on 3 axes: the technological innovation first, the modularity of the architecture of the system also, and finally new modes of operation between the State, the industry, SMEs and scientific research.
On technology, the big bricks are:
- Stealth, sensitive area if any. To give you an example, we want to remove the drifts of the future combat aircraft because they generate a strong radar return, but as much we know how to fly subsonic aircraft without drift as shown by the nEUROn, both for supersonic flights , the absence of drift poses a problem of flight control.
Aerodynamic formula without drifts and vector thrust presented by Dassault for his new fighter
- Maneuverability: if you remove drifts, you lose maneuverability. We plan to use fluidic control surfaces to reduce the size of control surfaces in general, as well as vector, mechanical or fluid injection thrust.
- Propulsion: we will need new, hotter engines with more power generation capacity.
- The sensors, with the development of antennas tile combining radar, listening, communication and electronic warfare. For optronic systems, we are moving towards the multispectral. For listening, it will be necessary to listen to all the bands, with an effort to make towards the low bands. We need a new antenna design with more gain.
An antenna tile in the cheek of Dassault's concept
- Artificial Intelligence: The AI will have several applications, from the virtual assistant for the pilot, to the adaptation of the human-machine interface according to the cognitive load of the pilot for example, while passing by the automatic generation mission plan, automatic field sensor adaptation and predictive maintenance. The use of AI to exploit sensor data will be massive.
- Armament. We will need new multimode infrared + radar autodirectors, and munitions that can communicate with each other to work cooperatively.
- The "Remote carrier", non-reusable drones ranging from a few kilos up to 1 ton, will require a major effort on cost reduction, miniaturization, and swarming.
- And finally connectivity, with high-speed but discrete intra-patrol link, a high-speed satellite link, see optical links. The architecture of the network will bring together data center and embedded edge computing on platforms flying on the edge of the network. Cyber security will be a key issue.
Thales's new Ka-band satellite antenna, which can be loaded onto a fighter
On the aspect of modularity, which is necessary to be able to adapt quickly to new threats, it may seem contradictory to stealth: indeed, on a stealthy plane nothing is carried out externally, so it is difficult to add new capabilities. Our answer lies in the development of modular bunkers with standardized interfaces for arming, and reconfigurable sensor bays.
Finally, at the state / industry level, we need a new system engineering approach to better capture the need. For this reason we have set up for the first time a state / industry shared work environment based on Dassault software. We will also use for the first time, end-to-end simulation.
We must also seek creativity in the civil, either by entrusting it to tier 1 manufacturers or through startup accelerators. For example, for the "Man-Machine Teaming" Upstream Study Plan, the industrial integrators have federated an ecosystem of SMEs and startups, to which we have submitted a call for projects, and we have selected the most promising ones.
To make the various actors work together and reduce the risks, we have a demonstrator policy, with a demonstrator of the future fighter plane around 2025, a demonstrator of the engine on the ground, and later, perhaps, a combat drone demonstrator. .
Question : What about interoperability with the F-35?
Breton : It is essential to be interoperable because we rarely intervene alone. The F-35 works like the Iphone, it's a captive system. We need to impose more open trade standards at the NATO or European level .
Question : Will we still use fossil energy in 2040?
Philipe Koffi : Yes
Question : The complete introduction into the forces will be done in 2040, what will happen in the forces by then?
Breton : The Rafale will benefit from the radars tiles, and a connectivity upgrade to integrate it into the SCAF. We will introduce "Remote carriers" quickly to be able to experiment them in operation. We will also integrate AI in the Rafale around 2025.
All components of the SCAF project are now ready to complete the modernization of our systems and the aircraft of the future by 2035/2040. The adventure promises to be arduous, its culmination commits France, leading nation on the project, but also its European partners. The launch of the study phase was planned by the end of 2018 at the latest.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Yves PAGOT
Former Air Force, he is a lecturer at Paris Tech. He uses all his scientific rigor to write in the field of military aviation.
Btw, worpress made of me the author, which i am not. Someone else was at the conference and i just gave a hand.
give back to Caesat what is Casar's.
At least you know what i look like. I hope there are many pretty female members here!
give back to Caesat what is Casar's.
At least you know what i look like. I hope there are many pretty female members here!
Interesting, but the question was, if the underperforming RBE 2 PESA would had been sufficient for Meteor?
This depends completely on the doctrine of use: France does not believe in the effectiveness of the BVR at the limit of range except for lightly manoeuvring targets such as AWACS or Tanker, for which the PESA is sufficient.
France has only bought 200 METEOR and is launching a MICA NG program, which shows that it is not expected to use many METEOR. Moreover, only two points have been opened on the Rafale for this missile.
For our employment doctrine, the AESA is especially useful for dealing with low RCS targets.
Against a Tanker ... (high RCS), YES.
Against a small fighter, at full Meteor range (>>100km) with no Awacs giving datas via L16, NO.
Interesting, you are the one that always kept claiming about the superiority of Rafale with AESA to support Meteor, compared to Gripen C/D or EF T3, but suddenly France doesn't have a long range requirement? But at least you admit that the PESA would be useless with Meteor for fighters. So once again, AESA necessity for Rafale, not for Gripen and EF!
It's only an initial order and will grow with growing numbers of Rafales too. Secondly, MICA NG is primarily aimed at upgraded Mirage 2000, because they will carry up to 6 of them (no Meteor), while Rafale primarily replaces MICA IR. Unless the external station will be used by French forces now, Rafale only carries 2 MICA NG.
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