http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/mh/paris061807/index.php

p109 KKM57P…when a US navy pilot giving its impression tells that rafale’s cokpit ergonomics is one of its main strenght : for high G environement as well as very long flights…

it is better than making speculation claims;)

Which is quite an advantage actually, but I think you are not giving enough credit to the Spectra suite and the discretion incorporated in the design. For instance the Rafale can fly at 600 kt at 30m of altitude and 5,5g discretely thanks to the INS/GPS and the digitalised 3d map covering 300000km², and in very difficult and/or unknown terrain the Radar has a terrain following mode which can be interleaved with AtoA and AtoG modes. Add the low RCS/IR, and the capabilities of the Spectra to detect and jam emissions with pinpoint accuracy and discretion and you should start do understand the Rafale’s capabilities.

Loke,

these capabilities exists today in the rafale…There is nothing secret about that. There are plenty of sources refering to this.

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.

The impressions of the greek pilots were variable, as is natural , and their observations quite interesting. The whole of the greek F16 pilots, found the cockpit particularly functional, although a bit small, as is used in all french aircrafts. Also, the best impressions left the glass cockpit advanced disposition. It is known that the high operational output of the Rafale is result of high performance, excellent behaviour and friendly MMI that adopts to the high workload in multirole missions. The existance of so many displays and the characteristical absense of analog instruments, was natural to make a big impression to the greek pilots, who apart the Falcon’s MFDs, are used to analog instruments. Some in fact, told us that they would feel more comfortable, if some analog instruments have been kept as backups in cases of malfunction or failiure of the electric system. Of course it is certain that safety valves has been thought, while evolution indicates that full glass cockpit will dominate in the future, as will happen in the case of F35 too.

It is also natural to be impressed by the high situation awareness provided by the Rafale thanks to data fusion. The Rafale, as the greek pilots had the chance to see, can receive tracking data from RBE2, Spectra, OSF, IFF, MICA IR sensors and accompanying aircrafts, ground command and control facilities and AWACS, elaborate them and produce system tracking data (system tracks). These are superior to quality compared to the single data of the individual sensors. This data is then used for fire control and is shown in the central tactical display and can be transmitted to fellow aircrafts. So, at a glance at the tactical display, the pilots can see the position of targets that may be inside the radar cone or outside and even in the rear hemisphere, no matter if the radar is on or off!

Also, it was verified that OSF provides advantage in air combat. As the greek pilots observed, once the target is locked from the radar, its image is then displayed in the central display which facilitates very much the target identification even in great distances.A similar function is provided in the F16 by the Lantirn Pod in air to air mode, with the difference that the backseater can make a search independent of the radar. On the contrary on the Rafale, the OSF is primarily slaved on the radar.

The best of impressions left to the greek pilots the performace of the Rafale’s self protection suite, confirming the french reputation in the sector since the time that HAF operated the ICMS2000 in the Mirage2000.

“It is possible now to have a fully passive detection capability and shoot down enemy aircraft without transmitting a single emission from the aircraft,” says Chaltiel.

Thales says that the integration of the RBE-2 positions the Rafale as the only fighter in its class to be equipped with active arrays for both its radar and electronic warfare suite.

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.

On the weapons side, the F2/05 Rafale will carry the IR version of the MBDA MICA air-to-air missile. The Rafale is unique in being designed around a single missile, MICA, which has been developed in active-radar and IR versions. Both versions feature a data-link to provide mid-course guidance (like AMRAAM) and vectored thrust for short-range agility. Unlike other IR missiles, therefore, MICA can be launched before the seeker locks, on and can perform a completely silent beyond-visual-range attack. The F2/05 will also carry the MBDA Storm Shadow/Scalp cruise missile.

Operational Impressions

Aviation International News spoke with two French military staff officers who have also been Rafale pilots, one from the air force, one from the navy, about the aircraft’s recent operational experience. Here’s what they said:

“We tested our swing role during the Tiger Meet, with good results. We could play in the air-to-ground role, while still monitoring air-to-air. We flew fighter sweep missions, then switched to strike and force protection. The strike missions included supersonic dash, and took place in a dense adversary environment.

“At the Tiger Meet, our two aircraft achieved 100-percent availability for the entire week. On the ramp, we demonstrated how the aircraft can be turned around by just one ground crew. The other teams were very impressed by that.

“The FSO also worked very well. It allowed us to identify our opponents at longer ranges than they could see us, while still complying with the RoE [rules of engagement]. So we won all our air-to-air battles, which were against
F-16 MLUs and Tornado F3s.

“We think that our Link 16 [NATO-standard secure data communications system] is the key to interoperability. Using it, we were able to keep very quiet in combat. Lots of air forces say they are compliant with it, but some of their aircraft don’t have the data keys.

“We were surprised by the efficiency of the Spectra electronic warfare system. It gave us a DEAD [destruction of enemy air defenses] capability that we had not envisaged. Spectra gave us a bearing on a [simulated] SAM site, despite our having been deliberately given the wrong location by intelligence. Then the FSO slewed to confirm the location.

“At Dushanbe, we’ve achieved 12 maintenance man-hours per flying hour with three Rafales. That’s the same rate as our Mirage 2000Ds–which is a mature weapons system.

“I have flown foreign evaluation pilots in our two-seaters, who have also flown the Eurofighter and the Gripen. They told me that our man-machine interface and data fusion is better than those aircraft.”

Can you bring as much info about the NG ? of course not…Because it is not yet operational. But you can see that SP is wrong !

The gripen NG is a nice aircraft, a good compromise in term of cost capabilities and I think it will offer capabilities which are often close to a rafale…It is certainly a more relevant choice for many airforces who don’t want to become true regional leaders. But globally the rafale is still a superior aircraft -and it comes at a higher price too).

The thing is there isn’t a lot of datas or at least comments from pilots available about the gripen NG systems exept constructor advertisment. So in Loke arguments there is a lot of speculation about some capabilities which are not even operational. So the debate is a bit bias…I always prefer to bring some articles from foreign pilot to have a real credibility instead of saying “we all know that the gripen irst will be badass…” and the like.

For the rafale, even if we don’t have all specific performances, we have already Greek block 52+ pilots commenting on the rafale but we had also F18 SH USN pilots, mirage 2000-5, USAF pilots… commenting about rafale performance…And even swedish gripen pilots admitting rafale’s F2superiority. The rafale confronted a wide variety of opponents which give it a real credibility when speaking about sensor fusion or situation awarness etc…
And I confirm the rafale is available to SC at least with one 1250l drop tank and 4 micas. A french navy pilot was interviewed in Air Fan a few years ago and specifically mentioned this capability.

So the promised performance of the gripen NG is by a very large extent already available on the rafale F3 and the F3+ standard is much much closer to an operationnal reality.

If you start the debate on pure speculation I can tell you that this is endless…It can be fun but don’t expect to find any conclusions.

@ Loke : you can’t be specific on RCS, IRST, EW performance neither for the gripen NG nor for the rafale so how to debate seriously. At least for the rafale we can bring (foreign) pilot impressions to have some credibility.
When comparing aircrafts I think it is prefarable to bring articles from various sources, see their level of independancy and cross check them. It s a bit soon for the gripen NG which is only flying inthe form of a demonstrator. At least most of rafale F3+ capabilities have already been demostrated to potential foreign customers.

I never doubt that UK tranche 3 would eventually go ahead? there is to much at stake ! The only worry is that UK reluctance to order the tranche 3 could perhaps impact further upgrade as they want to save money.
Do we know what aditionnal capabilities will finally be on production tranche 3 typhoon and when they should be delivered ?