Just go on the previous page of this thread. I already posted it today. It is the scan page of the leak about this new development that Sweetman is also reffering.

Again “Active stealth” is another way to say AC. And Sweetman was not mistaken when he talked about AC when referring to this leak.

News n°2 :

Jobim says it is the final phase for the report on fighters
Estadao , may 28

Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said that the final stage of drafting the explanatory memorandum that will go to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, pointing to the model of the fighter who will best meet in Brazil within the Strategy National Defense. The preference is for the French Rafale fighter.

The defense minister said that Lula “want to make the decision” still in its mandate. Except that the delay in presentation of the Jobim ‘s explanatory memorandum and subsequent convening of the National Defense Council, which will assess and approve the purchase, is worrying the airmen, who fear the proximity of the elections and the natural difficulties that arise in this period, for concluding negotiations and closing contracts the size of the FX-2, which can exceed U.S. $ 6 billion.

[…]

Asked if the subject was not experiencing many delays and could be hurt by the arrival of the [World]Cup and the elections, the Minister Jobim joked: “Cup and election has nothing to do with the purchase of aircraft. To my knowledge plane does not play football “. “the issue is the need.” And said: “We must remember that the defense moves these political issues. To emphasize that the President wants to make the decision even in his government, Minister Jobim said that “the whole problem is that we begin to have a gap in air defense in 2015 and we need to forwarding this issue and do not have much time to play with it.

According to Jobim, “President Lula only take a decision after a demonstration of the Defense Council.” For him, “before taking any decision.”. He acknowledged that the process has dragged on since 1995, but expects to close the matter.”It will take time to finish. But, as we are dealing with a purchase that relates to a period of 20 years, we can not pretend to be resolved in one week, one day.”

Jobim also noted that even after a decision by the president, with the choice of model, also will begin a “long process of negotiation of commercial and financial” with the chosen one.

Well I would think that AC would indeed suppress a few spikes of the RCS but I would be careful to any other claims that it could be more or less efficient than other means to achieve stealth. We simply have no clues lets face it. That not a forumer like you and me that is going to bring a definitive answer to such a technical aspect.

The fact that hundreds of millions are allocated to this tech in order to clear AC for operational use on the rafale of the 5th batch is a better indication to any selective google search from a non specialist forumer.

Just imagine the number of people involved in this stealth rafale program : those are real specialists. It could not realistically hit the “go ahead” development and funding phase if this tech was just “pixie dust” as you said. Decision making process is long and complex before getting funding and being approved by the french parliament.

Even other specialists like you would like to quote might not be as up to date as this program relies on a lot of research works. That the idea of maintaining a technological edge when you spend money on research for over a decade.

PS : Bill sweetman links are A&C which is posted right on this page and the PDF of the french 2010 budget which was posted on the rafale thread by Tmor.
And as a journalist he interviews people/ specialist like Pierre Yves Chatiel. (see his article)

no that is wrong, it is not funding active cancellation by any statement, an unqualified ‘active stealth’ seems the translation of which there are many tech sets
but i am more than happy to read a statement saying active cancellation if you have it

With all due respects you are not a french native speaker. And when A&C said “Furtivité Active” I guarantee you that they meant Active Cancelation. And Bill Sweetman perfectly made the link between “Active Stealth” and active cancelation. He has been following this tech development for the rafale for more than a decade now..

I also work for the aviation industry. However there is just so much specialities that to say that you and me are amateurs in regards of radar or EW technology is perfectly valid. Even the word amateur is an overkill.

As Bill Sweetman explained AC doesn’t need to be perfect just like usual stealth features doesn’t make you invisible but reduce your RCS to a magnitude that you are detected much latter.

A Stealthier Rafale?

Posted by Bill Sweetman at 4/5/2010 5:30 AM CDT

Our colleagues at Air & Cosmos report that the French government is funding a demonstration of improved stealth technology for the Dassault Rafale fighter, with a focus on active cancellation techniques. The story itself is not online but is being discussed at the Key Military Forum.

Active cancellation means preventing a radar from detecting a target by firing back a deception signal with the same frequency as the reflection, but precisely one-half wavelength out of phase with it. Result: the returned energy reaching the radar has no frequency and can’t be detected.

It’s quite as difficult as it sounds. Some reports have suggested that the so called SP-3 or ZSR-62 “radar jamming device” planned in the early days of the B-2 program was an active cancellation system. It did not work and was scrapped in 1987-88. In 2005, Northrop Grumman paid $62 million to settle a False Claims Act case involving the system.

This may not be the first French attempt to implement AC on the Rafale. At the Paris air show in 1997, I interviewed a senior engineer at what was then Dassault Electronique, about the Rafale’s Spectra jamming system. He remarked that Spectra used “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 aircraft.”

“You mean active cancellation?” I asked. The engineer suddenly looked like someone who deeply regretted what he had just said, and declined any further comment. (As Hobbes once put it after pouncing on an unsuspecting Calvin: “We tigers live for moments like that.”*)

The fact that a new demonstrator is being contemplated suggests that the technology may not have been up to the job the first time round – but since AC depends on electronics and processing, that picture may have changed. MBDA and Thales, which absorbed Dassault Electronique and is now the prime contractor on Spectra, have since confirmed that they are working on active cancellation for missiles.

The whole Spectra program has been a major venture, including the construction of four new indoor test ranges, including the colossal Solange RCS range discussed in Ares in 2007. That facility will probably play a major role in the new demonstrator program.

* It should be noted that Calvin’s response was “Not for long you don’t.”

AC cancellation would rather cancel a few precise RCS pikes of the aircraft rather than the whole airframe.

AC is certainly difficult to achieve but people who work on this technology are aware of these limitations. So if a bunch of forum amateurs like me djcross, jackjack, Lyndmeyer can have a small grasp of the difficulties linked to this tech why would specialized engineers don’t have a more precise idea of the situation (pros and cons).
The fact that funds (probably hundreds of millions) are dedicated to this tech for an operational need it would be the confirmation that it is possible. I don’t think they would keep on this route if the feasibility was unproven.