As if Dassault and co haven’t advertised various weapons and load outs long before they became an operational reality. And if you have missed the HMD it’s here and there still mentioned, for example in one of those Thales marketing videos. And the RBE2AA is operational? No it isn’t! Certainly closer to enter service than a Captor-E, but it is mentioned since quite some time now in Dassault’s marketing material, when it is in fact not in service. So 0 points for you. :p

lol you could write that in Eurofighter World 😀

There is a difference between PR pictures/articles just to make the buzz and pictures/articles about REAL developments that are actually taking place, with flight trials and measurable progresses.

The scalp is flying on Rafale since 1997, not just for fun and nice pictures but to have the difficult job of opening the flight enveloppe done as far as possible. Same thing with the AASM which integration proved to be very complicated (you bet, 6 instable 250kg iron logs that can be released at once each with a different trajectory). Talking/boasting about all the difficult work done during those developments is legitimate.

After 8 years since the first Scalped Typhoon picture on the ground, what has been the progress ?
They managed to move the scalps from the inner to the mid wing pylons… good job. :p

But you already know that

You are talking about the HMD in a thales commercial. Well, that’s a Thales product, that does exist and is even is service so why shouldn’t they promote it in their own com. The fact that the French Air Force has decided to wait for the next HMD generation (and get the aesa instead) is another story.
Since the planned HMD has been posponed, Dassault does not communicate about it anymore.

for god’s sake just bribe the guy 😡

they can’t !
Wait… may be we could ask BAE to do it for us 😀

Please let go of the eurofighter pdf topic.

Most Eurofighter fanboys here agree that they take lame potshots at the Rafale, so what is there to discuss?

It seems to me that the level of the Eurofighter fan here is way above the level of the typhoon marketers, wich is at the same time bad news for the eurofighter marketing team and good news for us.

Nic

PS: I don’t mean fanboy in a pejorative light, as I consider myself a Rafale fanboy.

wait, they deserve a little something for the good work 😀

i have not heard of this stealthy Raf. there were fan made cgs of a stealthy one but that was it.

between them, I think the Swedish would get there first with a manned 5th gen aircraft.. they’re more efficient than the French or British or Germans in aviation :diablo:

More efficient ?
Well, they only do half of the job. The other half has to be done by the USA, UK, Germany and France… :p

Just quoting Yefim Gordon’s “Soviet Aircraft Weaponry’.

Seems on the high side certainly, but its impossible to know what target aircraft this range is achieved at.

Well if you think about it, all IR sensors can detect the sun… at 150.000.000 km 😀
80 km detection range is obviously against a tail on after burning fighter/bomber… which is consistant with the long burning engine of the R-27ET (it needs to fly very long distance/time in order to catch up a fleeing target)
Head on, the range will most probably be around 15-20 km

This is the main weakness of the R27ET. If you engage a target at 80km and the target changes its trajectory enough to hide its engine exhaust before the missile is close enough for front aspect lock… you can kiss your missile bye bye.

The mica IR is a totaly different beast with a very short propulsion phase (<5 s if I’m not mistaken), high angle loft trajectory and mid course update in order to engage targets head on beyond the 20km sensor limitation in the front sector. This allow all aspects BVR engagment up to 50 km against highly maneuvering targets with a very small/agile missile.

All of the above brings me to the next question – what is next for the Rafale? I remember reading that Dassault was thinking of making it stealthier? Any details?

uss

The most interesting development imho is the fusion of the radar and spectra aesa antennas using conformal antennnas.

Then there are the damocles-XF, OSF-NG and a 4th generation HMD

next are the autopiloted flying decoys

+ the TVC which is still considered according to some sources (not likely imh) and conformal weapon stations

So it weighs 10% more and is <5% more expensive, so its cheaper per Kilo!!

Correct.
and then i can use the favorite typhoon fan argument : Rafale is more expensive per kilos because it is better. :p