“I don’t know why they aren’t bringing the brand new AASM…”
At the risk of provoking a tirade of abuse, I’d suggest the following:
1) Though test fired and close to operational status, AASM isn’t actually operational yet.
2) EC 7’s pilots haven’t trained with the weapon.
3) Though it offers great precision, it is perhaps too expensive to justify using against the kind of targets being engaged by French air power in Afghanistan.
4) Perhaps the version of the weapon that is available now is too big, giving too much effect?
5) Any glide/powered weapon is capable of greater miss distances than a simple ballistic weapon (because if everything turns to dust, it can fly further) and this may restrict its employment under the RoE that are in force. A Paveway II dropped on a given target will always land within a relatively small ‘circle’ even if the guidance fails – an AASM or a Maverick or a Hellfire could make it to the next town.
The interesting question will be as to which LGBs they are deploying with. Are they LGBs or dual mode (Enhanced Paveway)? How big are they – 125 kg, 250 kg or 500 kg?
“At the risk of provoking a tirade of abuse, I’d suggest the following:”
->Why ? Do you think i’m a psychopath ? 
1) Yes.
2) Actually, though the weapon isn’t operational yet, the Rafale had already the capability to train… I don’t know how to translate “conduite de tir”, but the AASM was already in the softwares, and this is what allowed the pilots to simulate it in Tiger Meet or TLP for example.
Maybe real training with real weapons are prefered… But at least, they should already know how the weapon works.
3) The unit price is around 143,000 €. (430M€ for 3000 weapons). That’s actually 10 times more than a mere GBU-12. So it IS expensive. It has the price of a missile.
4) It’s based on the Mk82 (240kg) just as the GBU-12.
5) The ASSM combine INS/GPS. If one fails, the other should prevent it from falling too far, i think.
The deployed LGB are still the GBU-12/22.
But this time, those Rafale will be able to use the gun.:D
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