O que os franceses dizem sobre o Rafale

[Einsamkeit]

Do Colega Alberto, do BM


What the French say about Rafale

Five years after the French Navy received its first aircraft, Rafale ushers the French Air Force into the era of network-centric warfare, thanks to its unique capabilities in terms of data fusion, tactical connectivity, passive target detection and weapons load. “You can talk about fourth-generation or fifth-generation aircraft all you want, but what really matters is that Rafale is one full generation ahead of all other aircraft,” says Major General (armament corps) Patrick Dufour, Rafale program director at the French defence procurement agency, Delegation Générale pour l’Armement (DGA). “It can perform any mission, anywhere, and that’s what counts.”
In fact, the French Air Force considers that two Rafales will provide commanders with the same mission capabilities as a formation of four Mirage 2000D attack aircraft escorted by two Mirage 2000-5F air superiority fighters. In this sense, says Dufour, it is a true force multiplier.
The “Provence” squadron’s pilots, who spent about two years working up on the Rafale at the operational conversion unit in Mont de Marsan, have logged an average of 120 to 130 flight hours on the aircraft.
“The most noticeable difference compared to other aircraft is that Rafale is a flying computer. It manages its own flight parameters, leaving its pilot free to concentrate on the tactical mission,” says Capt. Nicolas Lyautey, one of the first pilots of Escadre de Chasse EC 1/7 “Provence” to convert to the Rafale. He previously flew Jaguar fighter-bombers, comparable to Rafale in terms of size and weight but clearly outclassed in terms of capabilities. He went solo on the Rafale after only four flights with an instructor, and says that the aircraft is so simple to operate that pilots can undertake their first operational missions after about 50 flight hours.
The Rafale’s central computer monitors all flight, engine and system parameters as background tasks, and they are only brought up on the cockpit’s three LCD screens or head-up display when a decision or an input is required from the pilot. This avoids information overload, reduces workload and creates an uncluttered environment in which aircrew can concentrate exclusively on flying the mission.
“Using the autopilot, auto-throttle and navigation aids, the aircraft can fly a complete high-speed mission at an altitude of 200 feet above sea level without any intervention by its pilot,” says Jean-Marc Gasparini, deputy Rafale program manager for Dassault Aviation.
One of the more challenging aspects of Rafale operations is how to fully exploit its capabilities, and especially its range of passive sensors. Pilots, for example, can use its TV/thermal imaging observation system (dubbed Optronique Secteur Frontal, and similar in principle to infrared scan and track) to visually identify other aircraft at ranges of more than 50 kilometres (approx. 30 nautical miles), and transmit this and other tactical data to other aircraft using their MIDS datalink.
Another unique capability, according to Col. François Moussez, the French Air force’s Rafale program officer is that it can fire missiles at targets detected and designated by its integrated Spectra countermeasures suite, again without any need for active transmissions that can give away its position.
Remarkably, Rafale will continue to offer capabilities in advance of its competitors thanks to an upgrade policy adopted by the French defence ministry. This ensures that in-service aircraft are upgraded as new capabilities are cleared, so that the entire fleet is always maintained at the latest available standard.
The first Rafales to enter Navy service were configured to the F1 standard, optimised for air-to-air operations. The F2 standard is networked-enabled and adds air-to-ground capabilities, allowing Rafale to fire Scalp cruise missiles, made by MBDA, as well as AASM precision-guided bombs made by Sagem Défense & Securité.
Dassault is now working to finalize the improved F3 standard, which will be available from June 2008 and will add additional weapons, including the ASMPA nuclear stand-off missile, the AM-39 Exocet anti-ship missile and the Thales Reco NG reconnaissance pod. All navy and air force aircraft already in service will be retrofitted to F3 standard by uploading a new software package, which will become standard fit for all subsequent production aircraft.
Further improvements are planned as part of the program’s “R&D feeding policy,” although not all have been approved or funded to date. These will ultimately include uprated Snecma M-88 engines each delivering 9 tonnes of thrust (compared to today’s 7.5 tonnes), a new radar with advanced electronically-scanned antenna replacing the current RBE-2 radar with shaped-beam antenna, a new missile warning receiver, an improved Front Sector Optronics system and, beginning in 2012, the Meteor beyond-visual range missile being developed by a European industry team led by MBDA. If approved, these improvements will become standard beginning with the 120th production aircraft, says DGA’s Dufour.
Despite this apparent complexity, Rafale was designed to operate with bare-bones support, and for instance has entirely done away with scheduled maintenance – a premiere for an advanced combat aircraft. Thanks to its permanent auto-testing processing and real-time monitoring airframe fatigue by the aircraft’s own computer, maintenance operations depend on the real condition of individual components. Furthermore, all operational and maintenance paperwork is stored in a single computer database, allowing detailed monitoring of aircraft condition by maintenance crews as well as outside contractors.
“Our design objective was to reduce maintenance man-hours per flight hours by 23% compared to the Mirage 2000,” says Col Moussez, “and on initial experience we in fact achieved better than 25%.”
French officials are also at pains to stress that Rafale, despite its quantum leap in capabilities, remains much more affordable than competing aircraft. DGA’s Dufour says that the total cost of the 294-aircraft program, including development, pre-production, production and integrated logistical support, amounts to 33,273 million euros (inclusive of value-added tax) at 2003 prices. This is an increase of just 4.18 percent, or 1,336 million euros, over the projected cost in 1988, when the original contract was signed. Competing combat aircraft cost at least one-third more, reinforcing Dassault’s belief that the Rafale will eventually score highly on the export market.

(From a press release by Dassault Aviation, Paris (France) – July 3, 2006)

[zela]

Se o brasil levasse o Rafale não ia ser nada mal.

[Kratos]

Do Colega Alberto, do BM


What the French say about Rafale

Five years after the French Navy received its first aircraft, Rafale ushers the French Air Force into the era of network-centric warfare, thanks to its unique capabilities in terms of data fusion, tactical connectivity, passive target detection and weapons load. “You can talk about fourth-generation or fifth-generation aircraft all you want, but what really matters is that Rafale is one full generation ahead of all other aircraft,” says Major General (armament corps) Patrick Dufour, Rafale program director at the French defence procurement agency, Delegation Générale pour l’Armement (DGA). “It can perform any mission, anywhere, and that’s what counts.”

Típico exibicionismo e arrogância francesa.

[AlbertoRJ]

Será que essa capacidade do Spectra já está disponível? Ou melhor, operacional?

[]'s

[rodrigo]

From a press release by Dassault Aviation, Paris (France)

[piratadabaixada]

http://www.aviationnow.com/shownews/05paris/top12.htm

The surprise elimination of the Eurofighter Typhoon from Singapore’s fighter contest has focused more attention on the Dassault Rafale, the remaining European contender. The contest has turned into a grudge match, because the last time that the Rafale was up against the Boeing F-15 — in Korea — Dassault and the French government were convinced that it was only U.S. government pressure that swung the contest against them.

In the three years since Korea, the Rafale program has passed several important milestones, including the integration of several advanced weapons. Rather than offering an as-yet-undeveloped ‘Mk 2’ version, as it did in Korea, Dassault can sell Singapore an in-production fighter with a fully funded development program.

Rafale was declared operational with the French Navy last year. The French Air Force should start forming its first squadron around the end of the year — Escadrille de Chasse 1/7, at St. Dizier — and full operational capability is scheduled for September 2006. A French government order for 59 Rafales, announced in December 2004, brings total orders to 120 aircraft, for delivery by the end of 2011.

The first French Air Force operational version of Rafale is known as Standard F2. This introduces a new modular mission computer and incorporates the frontal sector optronics (FSO) system in two turrets ahead of the windshield. Weapons include the MBDA SCALP cruise missile, the radar- and IR-guided versions of the MBDA MICA, and the GPS/inertial/IR-guided AASM (Armement Air-Sol Modulaire (AASM). Rafale will carry up to six of the SAGEM-developed AASMs on triple wing racks. SCALP tests from Rafale were completed at the end of 2004 and guided AASM tests are due this fall. F2 includes most of the functions of the Thales Spectra electronic warfare system.

One of those functions — as first reported by Show News — is active cancellation, a unique EW technique that locates an enemy radar in range and bearing, calculates the scatter that it will receive from the Rafale, and transmits an exact mimic of the aircraft’s actual echo — but one-half wavelength out of phase, so that the radar sees nothing. If it works effectively, this will make the Rafale harder to detect and track than anything except an all-out stealth aircraft.

The Rafale team has been under contract since February 2004 to develop the definitive Standard F3 Rafale, which is due to be operational in 2008 and would be the version offered to Singapore. F3 is primarily a matter of software and weapon clearances. It adds a synthetic aperture radar mode for the Thales RBE 2 electronically scanned radar (ESA), plus remaining Spectra modes. The new version will include the Sagem Gerfaut helmet-mounted display, based on the Denel Archer. The Thales Damocles third-generation targeting pod will allow the fighter to self-designate laser-guided bombs and geo-locate targets of opportunity for AASM, and the Reco-NG reconnaissance pod will also be integrated.

Under F3, Rafale is expected to exploit a unique feature of MICA IR — its combination of an imaging IR seeker with mid-course guidance, using inertial navigation coupled with a datalink — to hit targets beyond either visual or seeker range without any radar emissions.

France has no current requirement for an active ESA radar, but is funding its development as a future upgrade and to support exports. Dassault and Thales tested an active ESA on the Rafale, in May 2003. However, this prototype radar relied on U.S.-produced high-power processing chips. A new AESA version of the RBE2, DRAAMA (demonstrateur de radar a l’antenne active, modes avancees), using all-European technology, was launched in July 2004 and will be ready in 2007-08. —Bill Sweetman

Rafale Displays

Rafale’s cockpit displays are unique. The pilot’s view is dominated by a wide-field-of-view (WFOV) head-up display and the unique head-level display (HLD). The latter is a high-definition full-color LCD screen, collimated at infinity, with the same field of view as the HUD. The coaming which separates the HUD from the HLD is on the pilot’s eye-line, while the HLD projects from the panel so that the viewing screen is close to the pilot’s face.

Visually, the effect is of a very large, bright and clear display (it looks large because it is almost literally at the end of your nose). The pilot can glance between the HLD and the HUD with an eye movement, without having to refocus.

The Rafale’s five-inch-square touch-screen displays, located on either side of the HLD, make more space for glass by eliminating the push-button around the bezel. Other designers have avoided touch-screens because they are seen as too hard to use in turbulence or maneuvering flight. Dassault and Thales have developed their own screens that provide tactile feedback – the screen clicks and moves when pushed – and allow the pilot to brace his arm for accurate use in turbulence or under g. Special silk-lined gloves include seamless fingertips and a chamois back to wipe any hand-prints off the screen. A similar touch-panel allows the pilot to interact with the HLD.

[Jacobs]

Será que essa capacidade do Spectra já está disponível? Ou melhor, operacional?

[]'s

Ja sim, inclusive tinha um topico aqui onde discutimos um artigo sobre um exercicio entre a força aérea francesa e a força aérea grega, e os pilotos gregos, voando seus F-16 (não sei exatamente qual block...), disseram que estavam sendo abatidos pelos MICA franceses sem nenhum spike em seus RWR.

Provavelmente o sistema SPECTRA consegue determinar, além da proa, a localização exata do spike, e guiar um missil mica de forma passiva. Quando o rdar ativo do missil se torna ativo, normalmente é tarde demais....

[Fábio Nascimento]

Será que essa capacidade do Spectra já está disponível? Ou melhor, operacional?

[]'s

Ja sim, inclusive tinha um topico aqui onde discutimos um artigo sobre um exercicio entre a força aérea francesa e a força aérea grega, e os pilotos gregos, voando seus F-16 (não sei exatamente qual block...), disseram que estavam sendo abatidos pelos MICA franceses sem nenhum spike em seus RWR.

Provavelmente o sistema SPECTRA consegue determinar, além da proa, a localização exata do spike, e guiar um missil mica de forma passiva. Quando o rdar ativo do missil se torna ativo, normalmente é tarde demais....

Desculpe a ignorancia, mas... o que é SPECTRA??

[Guilherme]

Desculpe a ignorancia, mas... o que é SPECTRA??

"The Rafale's electronic warfare system is the Spectra from Thales. Spectra incorporates solid state transmitter technology, radar warner, DAL laser warning receiver, missile warning, detection systems and jammers."

http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/rafale/

[Adriano]

[quote]"The Rafale's electronic warfare system is the Spectra from Thales. Spectra incorporates solid state transmitter technology, radar warner, DAL laser warning receiver, missile warning, detection systems and jammers."[/quote]

Impressionante!!

[Adriano]

Por favor, alguém pode me dizer como fazer citações sem ficar como ficou acima?
Nunca mais consegui....

Agradeço!!

Adriano.

[Sintra]

Será que essa capacidade do Spectra já está disponível? Ou melhor, operacional?

[]'s

Sim Projeto, está operacional. Se procurar encontra um tópico acerca de exercicios entre os Viper´s Block 52+ da HAF e os RAFALE F1 da MN. Os pilotos Gregos não ficaram particularmente impressionados com o RB2 ou com as táticas utilizadas pelos Franceses, mas ficaram impressionadissimos com esta capacidade do Spectra...

Mas... Esta capacidade não é unica.. Tenho descrições idênticas acerca do AN/ALR-94 do F22 e do DASS do Tiffie, e se formos olhar para aqueles Eagles vendidos a Singapura e à Coreia não ficaria particularmente admirado que tivessem sistema semelhantes.

Abraços

[juarez castro]

Será que essa capacidade do Spectra já está disponível? Ou melhor, operacional?

[]'s

Ja sim, inclusive tinha um topico aqui onde discutimos um artigo sobre um exercicio entre a força aérea francesa e a força aérea grega, e os pilotos gregos, voando seus F-16 (não sei exatamente qual block...), disseram que estavam sendo abatidos pelos MICA franceses sem nenhum spike em seus RWR.

Provavelmente o sistema SPECTRA consegue determinar, além da proa, a localização exata do spike, e guiar um missil mica de forma passiva. Quando o rdar ativo do missil se torna ativo, normalmente é tarde demais....

Será que eles não utilizaram as emissões radar do Vipers Gregos para guiar seu misseis?????
Ficando com seu radar no modo passivo???
Se foi, a outro caso destes recente.

Grande abraço

[chm0d]

Realmente, esse sistema é muito bom, os russos tem algo parecido tb.

Abs.

[Jacobs]

Realmente, esse sistema é muito bom, os russos tem algo parecido tb.

Abs.

Realmente, é algo que possoal do CTA deveria começar a esquentar a cabeça...