There are 12 nine G turns in the demo and 1 turn where the pilot pull as much as he can on the hard limit (a brief 10.5G peak can certainly be reached on this one).
Most of 9G turns (10) are performed during the first part of the demo (before the low speed high alpha fly by)
The -3G turn is also worth noting. Even though it looks less impressive than the negative “half loop” of the mirage 2000 demo imho

just 2 pics taken during the last day of the show.
Very nice display. May be a bit too much mirage 2000 like but still very clean and sharp. Cedric and the alpha demo team have done a great job in a short time. But there is still room for improvement.

Rafale B338 (the last one delivered yet, isn’t it ?). French Air Force pilot Cedric Ruet at the stick

This year, both the agressivity and the noise awards are going to the F-16 without contest (1000 hours of airframe potential evaporated in less than 10 min 😀 )

and a top secret new antenna on the rafale B301 (development)…impossible to know what it is…

The new sat com antenna ?

Probably when the damocles will enter operational service on the plane at the end of 2009 (?)

Cuz I agree with Sens: the F1 or even the 2000 suits perfectly to shoot Toyota’s in Africa or A-stan (they have very good 30 mm guns…). It’s already an overkill.
We can decide that they are now Mig 25 like for their second life and organize accordingly.
It’s more or less the case technically so it shouldn’t be any problem but incompetence or cowardise.

No it’s not.
it’s not a matter of shooting some Toyotas. it is a matter of being able to support your ground forces with efficiency when they engage taliban hidding in mountains and villages : Close Air Support

Retex from Afghanistan show that you need :
– small but acurate guided bombs
– optronic sensors to track and ID ground targets becuse you don’t want to shoot your own troops
– guns, and rockets because they are cheap and very efficient against targets of opportunity.
– ability to get and use targeting data from ground forces
– ability to carry different kind of weapons in the same flight (GBU, rockets, canon) in order to adapt to different kind of targets.
– Enough fuel to stay on station as long as needed
– Enough weapons (2 gbu is not enough when you don’t have a canon –> mirage 2000D)

We have currently no aircraft cabable of doing that.
The sem is almost doing it, but in fact not really : it is either the targeting pod or the canon… and it doesn’t carry enough weapons and fuel (only 2 GBU)

Roadmap Rafale it’s: ASEA, OSF-NG, DDM NG. Add say 400 M€ for the operational M88-ECO.
How much would have costed the upgrade of all the 2000C fleet? (to Mica standard at least?)
Plus all the other upgrades you’re refering to?

Since 1990 we had 20 years to pay for a proper GBU/targeting pod integration and link 16 on the 2000N and the F1… and we did not. We did some upgrades, yes (especially ECM), but as far as the stricking capabilities are concerned it was very limited. At the end we paid for an half GBU capability which is an opertional joke when you need to engage ground target quickly.

We are in 2009 and we still don’t have a versatil and efficient CAS platform.

That’s always the same with generation change. At the beginning your are at the top, then average and at the end you are low waiting for the new generation.

The brits have made the choice to upgrade their Tornados (and Jaguars before)
We prefer to invest in R&D for the next generation (Which should have came earlier BTW).
Which is the best choice? Debatable and debated. Anyway it’s too late to change mind.
As told before, I even think that at this point we should go to the end of the choice we’ve made and simply close the 2000C bases and use the ressources to improve the Rafale to full option.

which is the best choice ? Both of course !

That’s a fact the upgrade programs of the french fighter-bombers (jaguar, F1 CR/CT, mirage 2000N and now mirage 2000D) have been limited to the minimum to preserve the rafale budget.

The mirage F1 CT/CR and the mirage 2000N fleets being the worst. i mean, in 2009, they aren’t even capable of self designating their own targets to a LGB !!!

– rockets ? no
– GPS bombs ? no
– cluster bombs ? : no
– TV missiles : no
– link 16 ? : no
– laser designator : no
the 2000N doesn’t even have a canon
the radar of the F1 is a joke
Their navigation systems doesn’t have an integrated GPS (you have to attach an external one on top of the dashboard)
Honnestly, What kind of fighter bombers are those ? The french air force is dragging them like “boulet” in OPEX. Eventually, they are only good for recce (F1-CR) and show of force.

The mirage 2000 D is much better, yes, but still lacking a GPS bomb (where is the AASM ?), a canon, link 16 and the payload of the tornado.
Not to mention the fact that its cockpit is starting to date (larger LCD would not be a luxery) and we only have 60 of them in frontline service

Now compare that to the versatillity of the Harrier GR7/9 and tornado GR4 fleets …

Happy ghost ?

now let’s go back to the rafale shall we ?

Maybe your math is classified too, please do it again. 😀

There is no excact Mach number classified. First of all it is dependent on the atmospheric conditions and is shown in competitions. Not part of any specification and not outstanding enough to highlight it in advertisement claims. 😎

Mr Sens :

Do you realize that i wrote this well… 5 years ago 😉

At this time the rafale supercruising capability had just been leaked and was new to almost everyone on this forum.

Very interresting OSF picture.
“16.5 nm silent” it seems that it is a ranging estimation gets without using the laser rangefinder.
Interrestingly, there are 2 more magnification levels.

It is funny that the ranging info on the 2nd image has been blured.