The rafale indeed won 6-2 aigainst F16 in Luke but that was WVR only gun practising. So the use of radar was irrelevant to engage.

Not at all. The exercise was in a 100 x 100 km area, they began engagements well outside visual range and had to find each other. A detection advantage can be decisive in setting up an advantaged position for the merge. And I do not doubt that a RBE2 has a detection advantage over the original APG-68 in a Block 25 F-16 which they were fighting at Luke.

Besides the SH and rafale often practise off the french med coast when a US aircraft carrier is passing by so it is also very probable that he was refering to one of those encounter. So you should be careful when making allusion. I think that the result coincidence is to “small” to draw any conclusion.

SH had the upper hand in BVR but it was against the rafale M F1 with no Link 16, bugged radar and EW and no OSF.The F2 and the F3 is a different story.

The results were pretty much similar in the JTFEX exercises involving F2 Rafales, the Super Hornets had the upper hand in BVR and the Rafales in WVR.

The “coincidence” is obvious and so is the fact that the quoted article is biased amateur reporting that does not know what it is talking about (or more likely simply doesn’t care enough to verify which aircraft he is talking about).

I had a discussion with Cptn Ruet , Rut’ ….

here what he said to me ( in french ) , if someone can translate 😉 :

-Typhoon Vs Rafale , ça se vaut ?
– ça se passe très bien pour nous ..
– pourtant le typhie a un TWR supérieur non ?
– ça fait pas tout , on est beaucoup plus manoeuvrants , que ce soit typhoon italiens , allemands anglais ou encore espagnols ..
– meilleures CDVE ?
– oui , que ce soit a basse ou hautes vitesses
– et t’as entendu parler des f22 qui se sont fait tailler en pièces aux USA par les typhoon de la RAF ? intox ?
– pas beaucoup entendu parler , du moins pas ce résultat la …………..
– ok , beaucoup de mystères alors 🙂
– moins on en parle mieux c’est , Va bien… et laisse dire…
– je vois ^^ ….

My translation FWIW:

– Typhoon vs Rafale, does it measure up?
– it goes very well for us ..
– but the Tiffy has a better T/W ratio no?
– that isn’t everything, we are much more maneuverable, whether it’s Italian Typhoons, German, British, or even Spanish
– Better CDVE [commandes de vol électriques, Fly By Wire] ?
– yes, whether at low or high speeds
– and you’ve heard of the F-22 getting chopped to bits in the USA by the RAF Typhoons? Propaganda?
– not heard a lot about it, at least not with that result …………..
– ok, a lot of mystery then 🙂
– the less said the better, let people say what they will
– I see ^^ ….

Nothing wildly shocking in all of this really.

That linked article on Kalman filters sounds nice but is very weak on specifics.

And from that same link “This forces the designer to make educated guesses of the target aircraft’s range, speed and heading.”

Color me skeptical that this could be in any way effective to generate targeting solutions. And thus the need for two sensors obtaining simultaneous tracks.

Apparently the F-22, Rafale and Typhoon have sent 6 of each aircraft to the UAE for an exercise, (no doubt the F-22 will have gone all that way to not be in the sky at the same time:diablo:).

Has anyone got any details of this advanced tactical leadership exercise in the UAE, AFAIK its being run out of Al Dhafra, near Abu Dhabi.

Typhoons from Coningsby 3 sqn are there and maybe some Pakistani aircraft too.

Cheers

ATLC is an annual exercise, basically the UAE’s equivalent of NATO TLP. Here is a writeup by XI Squadron RAF about 2008’s exercise.