I believe the key words here are digital receiver and signal processing. We’ve heard various project about passive radars using TV or radio waves. There was an article a few years ago about a UK company working on a similar thing. There are rumours that some countries can use their cell phone towers in order to detect flying object etc.

As signal processing technology improve with the help of increased computing power such technologies are going to become ever more credible.
In the end LO is nothing more than a penetration aid, and there are plenty of cheaper alternative out there. It’s not because LM chose the most expansive of them that it’s the only option available.

In the battle between measure and counter measure, fact is the sword has always been mightier than the shield, and despite their LO characteristics, 5th gen aircraft manufacturers keep spending on their electronics, sensors and ESM even more.

With sensors being comparable the LO platform might have an advantage in first look, but LO isn’t the only option to break the kill chain. Other tried and tested options like jamming are highly effective to break it as well. And when going up against a foe with networked fighters and AWACs, the first look advantages of the LO platform become very small… Probably why almost every Asian countries are now trying to get some even if it means going for low cost option AEW…

In the end LO is a tool like any other, useful in some scenario (IMO mostly for bombing missions), but not the near invincible feature we hear about so often from LM. And like all penetrations aids, counter measures are going to be developed, and usually faster than expected.

The sentinels of the sky (in French)

Hammer guidance kit on target

PARIS, July 16 (UPI) — The laser terminal guidance version of French company Sagem’s air-to-ground Hammer weapon system has completed its first qualification firing test.

The Hammer air-to-ground modular weapon is comprised of various guidance and range-extension kits attached to a dumb bomb.

In the test, a Hammer weapon was dropped from a Rafale fighter. Its target was a bridge 31 miles distant, which was illuminated by an airborne illuminator in last few seconds of the bomb’s flight, Sagem said.

“The AASM Hammer’s guidance was deliberately initialized by offsetting the target’s GPS coordinates by over 164 feet,” Sagem said. “Thanks to its navigation, laser spot detection and terminal guidance algorithms, the AASM hit its target to within 3 feet.”

The weapon was developed under a contract from the French defense procurement agency DGA.

Two other guidance versions of the weapon have already been qualified for deployment on Rafale fighters and delivery of the units is to begin this year.

Bharat Electronics to join hands with Thales Air of France

Bangalore, July 5:

Bharat Electronics (BEL) plans to set up a joint venture company with Thales Air Systems of France. In a release to the exchanges, BEL said the company’s board of directors at a meeting decided to form a joint venture company. The venture — Thales India Private Ltd in radar business area is subject to approval from Union Government and other statutory authorities.

Extensive French Rafale Upgrade Programme Begins

First Rafale Arrives in Clermont-Ferrand

07:46 GMT, July 18, 2012 On 12 July 2012, the first Rafale fighter landed at the Aeronautical Industrial Workshop (Atelier Industriel de l’ Aéronautique, AAI) at Clermont-Ferrand. This is the first outcome of the contract to upgrade French Air Force Rafale fighters, which was awarded to the AAI in February 2011.

Until now, related modifications were carried out by a detachment of technicians from Clermont-Ferrand at the Mont-de-Marsan air base, in south-western France. After an initial phase-in, the single-seat Rafale serial no C106 will become the first of 52 similar aircraft to instead be modified and upgraded at the AAI’s Clermont-Ferrand facility.

Following on to the work carried out to bring the French Navy’s first 10 Rafale Ms to the latest standard, which the AAI began in November 2011, this facility is fast becoming the focal point for maintenance and upgrade work on the French armed force’s latest generation of aircraft.

Upgrade work on the French Air Force Rafale fleet began in February 2011 at Mont-de-Marsan and, since then, thirteen aircraft have already been modernized. Today, to increase the pace of the upgrade, and after a training period, the AIA will begin a four-year upgrade cycle of Rafale two-seaters and single seaters.

The modifications will give Rafale enhanced capabilities in the field of communications, interoperability and data exchange with ground troops.

The AIA at Clermont-Ferrand is one of the facilities Aeronautical Industrial Service (SIAé) along with those located at Bordeaux, Cuers-Pierrefeu Ambérieu, in Brittany. The service is headquartered in Paris.

The main tasks assigned to the AIA are conducted for the benefit of the French armed forces. They consist in the maintenance of aircraft (Mirage 2000, Mirage F1, AlphaJet, Transall, Puma, Gazelle), of related equipment, and the modernization of aircraft and of special installations for the three services.

I thought the Rafales M were being upgraded at the Dassault plant in Merignac?

French Aviators Still Providing Logistical Support in Afghanistan

The French Air Force has helicopter pilots and crews flying transport aircraft providing a vital logistics support for troops in Afghanistan, the air chief of staff, Gen. Jean-Paul Palomeros, said at the Farnborough International Airshow.

“Our aviators assure an important logistical support,” Palomeros said July 9 in a television interview with specialist website European-Security.org.

French president François Hollande’s decision to pull troops out of combat in Afghanistan by the end of 2012 has focused attention on the ground soldiers stationed in theater.

The French Air Force can also intervene in Afghanistan, if needed, from its permanent base in the United Arab Emirates, Palomeros said.

The Air Force has some 300 personnel and two Transall transport planes in Afghanistan, backed up by a third unit in Dushanbe in neighboring Tajikistan, an Air Force officer said. The service’s commando unit is expected to remain behind to help train Afghan Army units.

A detachment consisting of around 100 personnel and three Mirage 2000D fighter bombers ended on July 5 their last mission in Afghanistan and returned to France, the Air Force said in a statement.

The unit flew out of the Kandahar air base and returned to their home base at Nancy, eastern France. Palomeras attended a homecoming ceremony July 10.

For nearly five years, the French unit supported a succession of Mirage 200D, Mirage F1 CR reconnaissance planes and Rafale multirole fighters, which flew a total 7,200 missions and more than 26,000 flight hours. The missions included the use of weapons more than 380 times, including cannon fire and bombs.

France had some 3,550 soldiers and paramilitary gendarmes in Afghanistan in June, based in Kabul, Kandahar, Kapisa and Surobi provinces, and the logistics base at Dushanbe, Le Monde reported.

France’s withdrawal of units from combat missions by the end of 2012 was earlier than the 2014 date set by NATO allies, and sparked much public debate.