Switzerland slips slowly towards the Rafale
Aeroplans , June 8

According to the Swiss press, the head of the Federal Department of Defence should finally propose the purchase of a first tranche of a dozen fighter planes instead of the 22 originally envisaged. In this country confront the Eurofighter, the Gripen and of course the Rafale. For several months, the maneuvers are increasing and the EADS fighter visibly loses ground against the two other planes.

http://www.aeroplans.fr/Aviation-militaire/suisse-rapproche-rafale.html

Tiger replacement issue soon in the Parliament
Neue Zurcher Zeitung , May 29

[…]Dassault has repeatedly said to be the “aeronautical winner” of the evaluation and referred to the offered cooperation opportunities. The French air space is open to the Swiss Air Force for training. The same applies to airfields and Rafale Simulators. And the Swiss side wanted to participate as a project team on the further development of the jet. It is known that the French product enjoys much sympathy in the Air force.
[…]

http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/schweiz/tiger-ersatz_bald_wieder_thema_im_bundesrat_1.5822193.html

Ueli Maurer wants to stagger the purchase of fighter
Le Temps , June 6

In a new report submitted in June the Federal Council, the Head of the Department of Defense propose the purchase of a first tranche of a dozen aircraft
[…]
This purchase by tranches could be decisive as regards of the choice of the aircraft. The supplier should be able to secure new supplies and steady development over several decades. By opting for a phased acquisition beyond 2020 “it’s no longer the replacement of the Tiger that is anticipated but well and truly the F/A-18 , it will take place around 2025, one said in parliament.

The gradual renewal of the Swiss fleet would automatically exclude a new assessment, so a U.S. offer.

But other models could not meet the collateral requirements beyond fifteen years. “With this installment purchase program, the Swedish Gripen is the one which offers the lowest long-term guarantees,” said one aviation expert by emphasizing its less advanced technology. What strongly deny the Swedes. They ensure that their country has opted for the Gripen as the main component of its air force, so the future is assured. Furthermore, Switzerland would have access to technologies of the new generation that had not been submitted in April 2009

In any case, the final answer will come off only after the political return in September or October. But Ueli Maurer can already count on the support of the President of the Confederation and Minister of Economy, Doris Leuthard. In February, she had already proposed a purchase by tranche. Manufacturers of machinery and equipment, Swissmem, had exercised upon her a powerful lobby, making it sparkle 2.2 billion in business compensatory and technological spillovers.

Leuthard even spoke, last winter, about “an economic recovery plan” with this acquisition. Ueli Maurer, who met with the Defence Ministers of the three countries in line to provide future aircraft, was impressed by the possibilities of acquiring new technologies. We know that the Swiss Air Force, at least the pilots, bend to the Dassault Rafale, which, besides the possibility to use French airspace, promises to associate the Swiss to future developments.

But is buying new jets justified to only give a boost to the economy? The transaction remains expensive despite the salami considered by Ueli Maurer. The bill of 2.2 billion francs for 22 jets, long discussed, consisted in reality that the acquisition of “naked” aircraft , without armament, missile-related devices, pilot training, the cost of maintenance, etc..
[…]
Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz, had put the replacement of Tiger on the list of abandoned projects as part of its savings program. We must ensure that the replacement F-5E will not be on the back of the troops, still poorly equipped. The parliament, but the army officers, are far from convinced that the 33 F/A-18 are not sufficient to provide air policing tasks. “we don’t need more planes , but we need more collaborative arrangements with neighboring Austria, and German or French” said National Assembly member Eric Voruz (PS / VD), a member of the Policy Commission security. In fact, the shift from Ueli Maurer today betrays its weakness against his party, the UDC, and the rest of the Federal Council, the National Councillor J. Green Josef Lang

http://letemps.ch/Page/Uuid/e58dc49a-7018-11df-8ead-49801438e0a8/Ueli_Maurer_veut_échelonner_lachat_des_avions_de_combat

Another superb rafale video with Captain Ruet inteview comparing the mirage 2000 with the rafale (he has around 1500h on the M2K also + 3 years as an alphajet instructor and alphajet demo pilot). English subtitles available in the video.

Agility and power is impressive…the sound is really nice also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncz63HPos1U

Not at all Jackjack…Just a normal poster like you. No problem anyone can make mistakes.

Lyndmeyer,

A small correction : “active stealth” and its probable operational integration is not for the 4th batch of rafale in 2012 but for the 5th batch around 2019 as it is well explained by A&C.

The funding for Spectra 5T (5th batch) and the stealth demonstrator is being funded starting from 2010. First laboratory tests are due to begin latter this year according to DSI. (another first tier source posted on key on the rafale news thread).

Paths for a future F4 standard
DSI May 2010

In 2019 or 2020 should start deliveries for tranche 5 Rafale, to be ordered late 2015. Already, the various stakeholders of the program are working to trace the contours of the standard – F4 – of these weapons systems. The PEA for exploring paths for capacitive improvements have started last fall. The aim is to commission a review of all areas, to examine every major system or equipment and try to evaluate which technology advances are expected to be at the rendez vous and those which couldn’t be. Or those for whom it will be be possible to justify and obtain budgetary credits and those for whom it will not be possible! This explains the contents of this future F4 standard is still no freezed. However, the operationals are almost already expressing the considerable importance to dispose of a viewfinder-HMD. In A2A, it would allow one rafale to launch its MICA on a hostile aircraft without having to roll up in a close dogfight, which requires to be rid of its load of bombs. So to be able to continue its A2G original mission.

Essential viewfinder-HMD.

Beyond, the airmen consider that the viewfinder-HMD would provide an added value in the field of air-ground support, allowing to design to the weapon system, with the cross of the HMD, a ground target which would be in lateral or rear area and not necessarily, as it is the case today, in the front line sector of the aircraft. Or to design, via the Link-16, the ground target to a team member taking over. Thales evoked the possibility of an efficient equipment for the Rafale coming from the current Tiger HMD . And it seems quite clear that such equipment is much anticipated by potential export customers of the Rafale.

In the A2G field , operationals intend to have a laser designation pods even more efficient than the Damocles just arrived today in the qualification phase. They want the capacity to determine from a 6000 m altitude if the individual located on the ground is armed or not. As for weapons, they evoke missille with double capacity air-ground and air-air. And for the AASM bombs, they emphasize the development, for the 250 kg bomb, of laser guidance in addition to the current route by GPS and inertial hybridized IR sensor, but also on the achievement for the 250 kg body , of modular charges adapted to various types of employment and target, for example to focus on the effects of detonation and reduce collateral damage. The operationals do not want the AASM 125 kg proposed by Sagem. However an AASM 1000 kg with the ability to penetrate bunkers and reinforced buildings is favorably mentioned.

The air-ground sensors of the weapon system should also provide very high definition modes to improve the tracking of ground target (GMTI GMTT modes for the radar) with more complex interweaving of air-ground and air- air modes (monitoring of aerial threats in various areas while providing a ground tracking function). In the A2A field, one will have to start thinking about the studies for a MICA successor and to improve a little more the capabilities for identification of non-cooperative target (NCTR). In the matter of data links, including the Link-16, one will have to make greater use of satellite links. And the sea serpent of steering nozzle for the M88 is discussed again. It is also question of developing a stealth kit. Work will be launched to reduce the RCS by modifying the coating of the cans under the Rafale.

INCAS [Insert New Additional Capacity for SPECTRA] for SPECTRA 5T.

Already, the authorities and industrials are preparing evolutions for SPECTRA , to allow it to remain very effective when will start coming the tranche 5 Rafale. The PEA INCAS (Insert New Additional Capacity for SPECTRA), notified last September by the DGA to Thales Airborne Systems and MBDA, is indeed preparing SPECTRA 5T. The real challenge, according to Thales engineers, is to think, not only about the original equipment on board the new tranche 5 Rafale, but also about the retrofit in the framework of a prospective site to put this future new standard for the rest of the fleet including the first Rafale delivered.

An ambition much more delicate than it seems at first glance, because it need to evolve SPECTRA within acceptable limits – volume, mass, energy, cable, Interactions – by the first Rafale series, although their architecture has been conceived in the late 1980s. This requires, according to Thales officials, treasures of cunning and ingenuity. We must keep reaching an extreme interchangeability. Because the great longevity planned for the Rafale actually complicates the task. One need to design systems, allowing them the opportunity to integrate with minimal impact new technologies able to cope with post-2020 or even 2030 threats, still not easily discernible. As now formulated, the fundamental objective of SPECTRA 5T is therefore to be able to detect, even further, more discreet and even furtive threats.

How? by integrating, at the air entrances more efficient EM broadband receptors. Unlike current SPECTRA, with receivers still mixing analog and digital, those of SPECTRA 5T will be entirely digital. Which, incidentally, will facilitate transport and data management. More, added to future new processing algorithms, this increased “digitization” of equipement should provide a significant improvement in terms of sensitivity and angular measurement, with the added advantage of greater receptor compactness . This will allow, with equal volume, to much more! It is certainly delicate, given the sensitivity of the topic,to enter further into the details of improvements in matter of performance and functionality. But it must be very clear: according to Thales engineers, it is a revolution for technology and capability at the same level as it is for the RBE2 Radar evolving from a passive PESA antenna to the active AESA.

The GaN revolution.

This “revolution” also relates to jamming equipment for the future SPECTRA 5T. These transmitters, integrated at the top of the drift and the forward fuselage, near the apices and before the canard, will benefit from the integration of a new technology the gallium nitride (GaN) to replace the arsenide gallium currently used. The use of this broadband semiconductor, still unique within the European Union, very hard and with a very high thermal capacity, is expected to reduce significantly the electrical consumer and heating for a given power. The solid state antennas will provide a much greater lens precision with a very narrow emission beam. Note that to avoid any risk of external pressure on eventual Rafale export sales, the GaN components, like the gallium arsenide modules already used for the new RBE2 active antenna ,will be produced in France by a factory of the Franco-German company ( EADS / Thales joint-venture) UMS. The Thales engineers are also working to modify the current distribution between reception and jamming functions in SPECTRA. With, for example, the idea to integrate, for SPECTRA 5T, a multisignal RF receiver within the jammers. Viewing similarities between jammers and receivers components, such an approach would be technologically feasible and, potentially, would provide interesting synergies. Nevertheless, the collocation of such equipment would introduce real technical difficulties – EM compatibility -, though perfectly manageable. This pass, to avoid to perturb the receiver with collocated jamming emission, by appealing different waveforms for each equipment, with a wider range of frequence than currently employed on Spectra and with the implementation of active filters. In contrast, the locations and volumes vested to such equipment would remain unchanged from today. No way to modify anything in the aerodynamics of the aircraft or to impact the structure of the cell. Similarly, these changes would occur at energy isoconsumption [same energy consumption]. Asked whether the integration of tracted active EM decoys – in use with F/A-18E/F, B-1 and Typhoon – could be an interesting track for SPECTRA 5T, Thales engineers , as also the operationals, replied by expressing doubts about the broad effectiveness of the formula. It is difficult to re-roll the lure in flight and it must be dropped before landing. Hooked from a certain distance behind the carrier, it could allow a foreign fire control to recognize it as a decoy and, paradoxically, to facilitate the detection of the real target. Certainly, the tracted active EM jammer provides good angular jamming. But the SPECTRA ability to use jamming in cooperative mode – mode still insufficiently cleared by the operationals – is expected to balance the absence of tracted decoys on the Rafale.What is almost certain, however, is that SPECTRA 5T will implement dropped active EM lures . They should be able to simulate the RCS of a Rafale and to track, thanks to the deployment of a small wing, a trajectory similar to the simulation of an airplane. This had already been the subject of studies and demonstration trials during the 1990s. It seems that the expected performance of these “dropped” lures are higher than those tracted. Nevertheless, studies will be launched to assess the interest of the latter. The carriage of additional IR cartridges on some external payload points is also expected. Although the PEA INCAS has been notified in November 2009, the study of the SPECTRA 5T architecture system have already made good progress. Suitable demonstrators for various equipment should begin to work next year. J.-L ®

…Perhaps because he is considered as a reliable source…Just a guess.. ! What have you against him ? He has a good reputation as a defense journalist. He is more than a anonymous blogger. He has interviewed people directly involved with spectra and has a good knowledge of AC program in france.

Jackjack,

Two different and very good journalist source talks about active stealth or AC for the rafale as a potential new feature with some good arguments and quoted sources. Put in perspective with the 2010 budget and the funding of a stealth demonstrator it is become even more likely. At a point if you call into question every independent sources what the point discussing ? Each time you would post a link I could say “nah it can’t be true…” as often the quality of your source is not even as good…

But there is more to Spectra than conventional jamming. Pierre-Yves Chaltiel, a Thales engineer on the Spectra program, remarked in a 1997 interview that Spectra uses “stealthy jamming modes that not only have a saturating effect, but make the aircraft invisible… There are some very specific techniques to obtain the signature of a real LO [low-observable] aircraft.” When asked if he was talking about active cancellation, Chaltiel declined to answer.

Earlier this year, Thales and European missile-builder MBDA disclosed that they were working on active-cancellation technology for cruise missiles and had already tested it on a small unmanned aerial vehicle, using a combination of active and passive techniques to manage radar signature. This revelation makes it considerably more likely that active cancellation is already being developed for Rafale.

Do you realize that at a some point the journalist (Sweetman) was face to face with the thales engineer ? He was certainly in a good position to get informations.

The statement/press release from thales or mbda about AC development might exist or not depending of the level of confidentiality (I didn’t look for it). but A&C and Sweetman is enough for me…They interviewed the right people and got the information. That just a journalist work and it is a valid source.

For Jackjack :

The Rafale EW suite, known as Spectra, is one of the most powerful systems installed on a fighter aircraft and is intimately associated with the unique approach to stealth and survivability designed into the Rafale. Dassault executives describe the Rafale as discreet rather than being stealthy in the sense of a F-22. To avoid detection, it combines avionics, tactics, and reduced radar reflectivity with some techniques that have not been directly revealed and are apparently unique.

The first element of discretion is that Spectra’s receiver system and the FSO help detect and track targets without using radar. Spectra incorporates a radio-frequency (RF) detection system, a missile-approach warning sensor, and a laser-warning system and provides full 360-degrees coverage. The RF detection subsystem uses prominent square-section antennas, mounted on the lower corners of the engine inlets and in the rear of the fin-top pod, covering 120 degrees each. The receiver antennas use interferometric techniques to measure a signal’s angle of arrival within less than 1 degree and are designed so that they do not have a large radar-cross-section (RCS) contribution.

The Rafale is also designed to use terrain masking, particularly at night or in bad, weather when visually cued short-range surface-to-air weapons are less effective. With its maneuverability and a high degree of cockpit automation, the fighter is designed to fly a terrain-avoidance/threat- avoidance profile at 5.5 g and 100 feet in altitude. The RBE2 and a terrain-referenced navigation system, using stored terrain data, are used to provide redundant flight guidance.

Rafale makes extensive use of radar-absorbent material (RAM) in the form of paints and other materials, Dassault engineers have said. RAM forms a saw-toothed pattern on the wing and canard trailing edges, for instance. The aircraft is designed to so that its untreated radar signature is concentrated in a few strong “spikes,” which are then suppressed by the selective use of RAM.

Spectra’s active jamming subsystem uses phased-array antennas located at the roots of the canards. Dassault has stated that the EW transmit antennas can produce a pencil beam compatible with the accuracy of the receiver system, concentrating power on the threat while minimizing the chances of detection.

But there is more to Spectra than conventional jamming. Pierre-Yves Chaltiel, a Thales engineer on the Spectra program, remarked in a 1997 interview that Spectra uses “stealthy jamming modes that not only have a saturating effect, but make the aircraft invisible… There are some very specific techniques to obtain the signature of a real LO [low-observable] aircraft.” When asked if he was talking about active cancellation, Chaltiel declined to answer.

Earlier this year, Thales and European missile-builder MBDA disclosed that they were working on active-cancellation technology for cruise missiles and had already tested it on a small unmanned aerial vehicle, using a combination of active and passive techniques to manage radar signature. This revelation makes it considerably more likely that active cancellation is already being developed for Rafale.

Active cancellation is a LO technique in which the aircraft, when painted by a radar, transmits a signal which mimics the echo that the radar will receive – but one half-wavelength out of phase, so that the radar sees no return at all. The advantage of this technique is that it uses very low power, compared with conventional EW, and provides no clues to the aircraft’s presence; the challenge is that it requires very fast processing and that poorly executed active cancellation could make the target more rather than less visible.

The complexity of active cancellation could account for Spectra’s high price tag, estimated in 1997 as “several billion francs” (equivalent to the high hundreds of millions of US dollars) for research and development. One of four Rafale prototypes was dedicated to Spectra tests, along with a Falcon 20 flying testbed. Four new large anechoic chambers were built to support the Spectra project, including one which is large and well equipped enough to operate the complete system in a fully detailed electromagnetic environment.

Spectra’s RF systems are backed up by a laser-warning system, an optical missile-launch-warning system, and a full range of expendable countermeasures. There is no towed decoy system.