Dassault Rafale: A Gust Of Wind

This blog is about the Dassault Rafale which is a fighter aircraft developed by the French.

The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine which literally means ‘gust of wind’ and ‘burst of fire’. Dassault Rafale is a multirole fighter aircraft designed by Dassault Aviation. Widely used by the French military, it is known to be one of the strongest multi-role fighter in the French Fleet. Since 4 July 1986, it is getting success in air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti- ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions.

Engines:

Dassault Rafale is fitted with two Snecma M88 engines. Snecma M88 engine is a low bypass turbofan engine which uses afterburner, non-polluting annular combustor chamber and a single-crystal turbine blades. It consists of metallurgy disks and technology to reduce radar and infrared signatures. Snecma M88 is a really powerful engine which allows Rafael to super cruise while carrying four missiles and one drop tank. Each engine is capable of providing up to 50 kN dry thrust and 75 kN thrust with the use of afterburners.

Armaments:

Dassault Rafale has 14 hard points on the airframe. This allows to Dassault Rafale to carry different types of Armaments.

1. Missiles:

• Air-to-air:

  • Magic II, MBDA MICAIR or EM and MBDA Meteor in the future

Air-to-ground:

• MBDA Apache, MBDA Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG, AASM-Hammer(SBU-38/54/64), GBU-12 Paveway II, GBU-22 Paveway III, GBU-24 Paveway III, GBU-49 Enhanced Paveway II, AS-30L

Air-to-surface:

• MBDA AM 39-Exocetanti-ship missile

Nuclear Deterrence:

ASMP-A nuclear missile

• Others:

  • Thales Damocles targeting pod

  • Thales AREOS (Airborne Recce Observation System) reconnaissance pod

  • Thales TALIOS multi-function targeting pod in the future (F3R Standard)

  • Up to 5 drop tanks

  • Buddy-buddy refueling pod

These missiles used in Dassault Rafale are really difficult to detect and are able to travel long distances.

Radars and Sensors:

RBE2 AA active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar is used in Dassault Rafale which gives better detection ranges.

Characteristics:

Rafale consists of fronto-sector electro-optical system or Optronique Secteur Frontal (OSF). This system is developed by Thales and is used for detecting and identifying airborne, ground and sea targets. OSF enables the deployment of the infrared missiles such as MICA. OSF is also capable of providing Dassault Rafale with long-range surveillance.

This aircraft is one of the most fascinating inventions by France. It’s also one of the World’s best fighter aircraft as it is capable of cruising at high speeds with tonnes of armaments mounted on the air frame. The best part of the plane is that it has all armaments which are really helpful in every single type of mission such as anti-shipping missions, air to ground missions or air-to-air missions. Dassault Rafale has really shown remarkable results since 30 years of service. Its fearsome characteristics attract many countries to buy some of these. Dassault Rafale is a leading aircraft which has the ability to compete with the best fighter aircraft- F 22 raptor, F-16 or Euro typhoon.

(Sources used: Dassault-Aviation.com; Rafale-RIAT, 2009; Tim Felce, 2009)

Featured Image Credit: (Wallpapers-Best.com Photo)