Dassault Rafale

Dassault Rafale

The Rafale is a highly agile French twin-engined delta-wing multi-role fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. It is being produced both for land-based use with the French Air Force and for carrier-based naval operation with the French Navy. It has also been actively and aggressively marketed to a variety of export customers. Rafale is widely regarded as the outstanding achievement of France's leading aircraft manufacturer.

History

In the mid 1970s, both the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) and Navy (Aéronavale) had a requirement (the Navy's being rather more pressing) to find a new generation of fighter (principally to replace AdlA Jaguars and Aéronavale Crusaders), and their requirements were similar enough to be merged into one project. This requirement was initially to be met by the Future European Fighter Aircraft (F/EFA) involving Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Differences soon emerged in the project, carrier capability was specific to France only and while France wanted an offensive ground-attack aircraft with secondary air-to-air role the other nations had air-to-air as their primary mission. Dassault was authorised to work on a technology demonstrator in 1983 named the Rafale ("Squall"). The final divergence came in 1985, following French demands for far ranging control of the F/EFA project, including all senior roles within the joint company. France announced its intention to leave the project and committed to the national Rafale. Its former partners continued their collaboration on what was to become the Eurofighter Typhoon.

This Rafale A was rolled out in late 1985 and made its maiden flight on 4 July 1986. The SNECMA M88 engines being developed were not considered sufficiently mature for the initial trials programme to be conducted without risk (though their development status has often been underplayed), so the demonstrator flew with General Electric F404-GE-400 afterburning turbofans as used on the F/A-18 Hornet. The demonstrator impressed the French Ministry of Defence enough to place production orders in 1988. Further testing continued, including carrier touch-and-go landings and test-flying early M88 engines, before the Rafale A was retired in 1994. By 27 March 1994, when the Typhoon made its first flight, pre-series Rafales had been flight-testing for three full years including carrier trials.

Three versions of Rafale were in the initial production order:

• Rafale C (Chasseur) Single-seat fighter for the Armée de l'Air
• Rafale B (Biplace) Two-seat fighter for the AdA
• Rafale M (Marine) Single-seat carrier fighter for the Aéronavale

The prototype Rafale C flew in 1991, the first of two Rafale M prototypes flew later that year, the prototype Rafale B flew in early 1993 and the second Rafale M prototype flew later that year. Catapult trials were initially carried out between July 13 and August 23 1992 at NAS Lakehurst in New Jersey, USA, and Patuxent River, Maryland, USA, France having no land-based catapult test facility. The aircraft then undertook trials aboard the carrier Foch.

Initially the Rafale B was to be just a trainer, but Gulf War and Kosovo experience showed that a second crewmember is invaluable on strike and reconnaissance missions, and therefore more Rafale Bs were ordered, replacing some Rafale Cs. A similar decision was made by the Navy, who initially did not have a two-seat aircraft on order; the program nevertheless was stopped.

Political and economic uncertainty meant that it was not until 1999 that a production Rafale M flew.

The French forces are expected to order 292 Rafales: 232 for the Air Force and 60 for the Navy.

The marine version has priority since the aircraft it is replacing are much older, especially the Vought F-8 Crusader fighter which is a 50 year old design. Service deliveries began in 2001 and the type 'entered service' on 4 December 2000, though the first squadron, Flotille 12, did not actually reform until 18 May 2001. The unit embarked on the Charles de Gaulle in 2002, becoming fully operational on 25 June 2004, following an extended opeval (operational evaluation) which included flying limited escort and tanker missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom over Afghanistan. Though restricted to an air-to-air role, with a limited range of weapons the Rafale M was claimed by some to be the most advanced fighter in service in Europe at the time.

The Armee de l'Air received it's first three Rafale Bs (to F2 standards) in late December 2004. They went to the CEAM at Mont-de-Marsan for operational evaluation and associated pilot conversion training. The first Armée de l'Air frontline unit, Escadron de Chasse 1/7 Provence, will form at St Dizier during 2006, delayed deliveries having forced some delay to the squadron's stand up date. FOC is still optimistically scheduled for September 2006, when the type should be fully operational as an Omni-role fighter/fighter-bomber with Mica AAMs, Scalp EG ASMs, GPS-guided bombs, and LGBs (though the latter will be designated by other platforms or by ground based systems). It will then be the most advanced multi-role fighter in service in Europe.

Variants

Rafale A

This was a technology demonstrator that first flew in 1986, as described above. It has now been retired.

Rafale D

Dassault used this designation (D for discret or stealthy) in the early 1990s for the production versions for the Armée de l'Air, to emphasize the new semi-stealthy features they had added to the design.

Rafale B

This is the 2-seater version for the Armée de l'Air; delivered to EC 330 in 2004.

Rafale C

This is the single-seat version for the Armée de l'Air; delivered to EC 330 in June 2004.

Rafale M

This is the carrier-borne version for the Aéronavale, which entered service in 2002. Very similar to the Rafale C in appearance, the M differs in the following respects:

• Strengthened to withstand the rigors of carrier-based aviation
• Stronger landing gear
• Longer nose gear leg to provide a more nose-up attitude for catapult launches
• Deleted front center pylon (to give space for the longer gear)
• Large stinger-type arresting hook between the engines
• Built-in power operated boarding ladder
• Carrier microwave landing system
• "Telemir" inertial reference platform that can receive updates from the carrier systems.

The Rafale M weighs about 500 kg (1,100 lb) more than the Rafale C. Unusually for a carrier-based plane, it does not have folding wings. This was to save money by increasing commonality with the land-based Rafales.

Rafale N

The Rafale N, originally called the Rafale BM, was planned to be a 2-seater version for the Aéronavale. Budget constraints and the cost of training extra crew members have been cited as the grounds for its cancellation.

Combat systems

The Rafale carries, for the first time in aviation history, an integrated electronic survival system named SPECTRA which features a software-based virtual stealth technology.

The current Rafale variants are claimed to be marginally capable of supercruise with light weapons loads under certain atmospheric conditions. A planned engine upgrade, according to some sources , will allow the Rafale to supercruise with more realistic loads at around Mach 1.4.

Programme milestones

Milestones include:

• June 1995: first firing of self-guided Mica missile from Rafale.
• July 1995: Installation and testing of OSF system and helmet-mounted sight/display.
• September 1995: fourth test series of the Rafale M at-sea .
• November 1995: first long-range non-stop flight of the Rafale B01 (3,020 nm in less than 6 hours 30 minutes).
• October-December 1995: fourth and last land-based test series of Rafale M in the United States.
• December 1995: assembly of first production model fuselage.
• March 1996: "flightworthiness" qualification of Snecma M88 engine.
• May 1996: very-low-altitude flights using digital map.
• July 1996: integration of Spectra electronic warefare system (in anechoic chamber and EM far-field)
• November 1996: flight test of the Spectra Integrated Countermeasures System.
• February 1997: flight tests of the Rafale B01 in heavyweight configuration, equipped with two Apache air-to-ground missiles, three 2,000-litre drop tanks and four air-to-air missiles (2 Magic and 2 Mica).
• May 1997: first inertially-guided MICA firing.
• June 1997: Spectra countermeasures flight testing.
• October 1997: first flight of first production RBE2 radar.
• November 1997: inertially-guided firing of missiles in CM environment, against two targets, with aircraft-missile link.
• June 1998: MICA fire control system qualification.
• June 1998: Full evaluation of proposed initial operational capability by Navy and Air Force pilots flying Rafale B01 and M02 development aircraft.
• May 1999: first SCALP missile launching test.
• July 20, 2000: first Rafale M delivery to Flotille 12F
• December 2004: three Rafale Bs delivered to CEAM, Mont de Marsan
• September 9, 2005: first Meteor GHTM carriage trials by Rafale M from CEV Istres (GHTMs are General Handling Training Missiles, instrumented but inert dummies designed to capture data only).
• September 11, 2005: first Meteor GHTM carriage trials by Rafale M from the carrier Charles de Gaulle.

Standards

File:HUD-rafale.jpg

A Rafale fighter of the Charles De Gaulle, seen through the HUD of another Rafale. Speed is 323 knots, bearing 340. The Rafale in bearing one Magic missile, two MBDA MICA, and two external tanks.

Initial deliveries of the Rafale M were to the F1 ("France 1") standard. This meant that the aircraft was suitable for air-to-air combat, replacing the obsolescent F-8 Crusader as the Aviation Navale's carrier-based fighter, but not equipped or armed for air-to-ground operations. Future deliveries (to Flotille 11 some time after 2007) will be to the "F2" standard, giving air-to-ground capability, and replacing the Dassault Super Étendard in the ground attack role and the Dassault Étendard IVP in the reconnaissance role. This will leave the Rafale M as the only fixed-wing aircraft flown by the Aviation Navale, and plans are to upgrade all airframes to the "F3" standard, with terrain-following 3D radar and nuclear capability, from early in the decade following 2010.

The first Rafale C delivered to the Armée de l'Air, in June 2005, was to the "F2" standard, and it is anticipated that upgrades similar to those of the navy will take place in the future. The Rafale replaces the Jaguar, Mirage F1 and the Mirage 2000 in the Armée de l'Air.

Users

The Rafale is now in service in the trials and training role with the French Air force and looks set to entre full operational service (with robust air-to-air and stand off air-to-ground precision attack capabilities) during 2006. The aircraft is already in limited operational service with the French Navy in the air-to-air role, and has undertaken a great deal of air-to-ground trials and evaluation work. No foreign sales have yet been made, though the type has been rated highly in a number of evaluations. In August 2005 Singapore selected the Boeing F-15SG after a run-off with the Rafale. The Typhoon had been eliminated from the competition in June 2005.

Costs

Total programme cost between €31.1 Bn (National Assembly €26 Bn + 19.5% VAT) and €35.1 Bn (National Assembly, 2005).

Other total costs reported include €33.27 Bn (National Assembly), or €34 Bn (Dassault).

This translates to a unit programme cost of between €106 m and €119.388 m.

Unit system cost FF 600 m (€ 91 m) €88 m Unit flyaway price (1997) FF 350 m (€53 m)

These costs make Rafale the cheapest of the current crop of superfighters, while the claimed lack of cost growth since 1997 would make it the most tightly managed modern fighter programme.

Problems

The Rafale is a major achievement for a single nation, as equivalent fighter programmes have been undertaken by much larger companies or collaboratively by several nations. As an aircraft to meet French requirements (combining a robust carrier capability and good air-to-ground potential) it is hard to see how Rafale could have been better optimised to meet these, while the programme's unilateral nature afforded great focus, and protected it from many of the political factors which have so dogged the rival Eurofighter.

There have been increasingly critical comments about Rafale from members of the National Assembly's Finance and Defence Commissions, and there have been reports of disagreements between Dassault and DGA about cost increases and obsolescance. According to Defence Analysis (p.17, Vol 8.No.12 December 2005) Dassault have called the RBE2 radar 'fatally flawed' alleging that its range was 'inadequate' and averring that the Rafale therefore relied on AWACS support to overcome this. The DGA also described Rafale's OSF (Optronique Secteur Frontal) as 'obsolescant' and production has been cut back to just 48 units, rather than the planned number, which was to have been sufficient to equip all F1 and F2 versions.

There were reports that problems with the 'Central Processor' led to only three of five Rafales being delivered during 2004, and suggestions that the same problem led to a shortfall of deliveries (against the planned schedule) in 2005.

There was a two year delay in signing the production contract for the 59 F2 standard Rafales, and the order due to be placed in 2006 has dropped from 82 aircraft (65 AdlA, 17 Aéronavale) to just 66 (48 AdlA, 18 Aéronavale) (according to the Vincon Senate report). The Pintat report indicated that this reduced order has also been slipped to 2007.

Still subject to delays, the Rafale (once progressing well ahead of the rival Eurofighter Typhoon) has still not entered full operational service with the Armée de l'Air, and less than a dozen are in use with the French Air Force for trials, evaluation and conversion training with EC330. Though the aircraft entered operational service with the Aéronavale in 2004 Flotille 12 still has only 9 Rafales (less than a full Flotille) and is currently limited to Air-to-Air combat (F1 software/hardware standard). There are concerns that operational loads (especially in the long range air to surface role) will be limited by the present engine's relatively modest thrust.

A 'Post F3' configuration is now being discussed, this will be fitted with an active array radar, which is necessary to fully exploit Meteor.

Controversies

More controversially, some sources maintain that the aircraft compares unfavourably with Eurofighter's Typhoon in the air to air role, though this is vigorously denied in other quarters. Though it uses a modern canard Delta configuration, non-French test pilots who have evaluated Rafale are reported as suggesting that the aircraft is hampered by an old fashioned and 'cumbersome' Man Machine Interface, and it has been suggested that this was the main reason behind the type's rejection by South Korea and Singapore.

Rafale was placed second behind versions of the F-15 in both Korea and Singapore, and remained in both competitions after the rival Eurofighter Typhoon was eliminated. The selection of the older US fighter was widely suspected to have been influenced by political factors and by reasons of tight timescales, and many Rafale supporters took some comfort in the aircraft's apparently better performance in the competitions than its European rival. Many took this as evidence that the aircraft was more advanced, more cost-effective and more capable than its rivals.

According to a number of publications (including the prestigious industry newsletter Defence Analysis, and Flight Daily News), however, though Rafale 'out-lasted' Typhoon in both competitions, the Eurofighter aircraft's rejection in Singapore was on political grounds, and that it was preferred by the evaluation team. Flight Daily News reported a senior Eurofighter GmbH source as describing lead company BAE's bid performance as having been shambolic, though the official reason given was Eurofighter's inability to meet Singapore's tight timescales.

Similar reports suggest that Typhoon scored highly in South Korea, but was rejected because it could not meet the country's ambitious service entry date targets. This cannot be confirmed, however, and these reports were largely confined to the English language press. French sources maintain that The claim that Rafale “scored better than Eurofighter each time they challenged bids for foreign exports” but this is not supported by any published evidence.

According to Defence Analysis, and Flight Daily News the Singapore evaluation also reportedly revealed problems with Rafale's reliability and availability, and that the aircraft failed to demonstrate claimed radar performance or its claimed ability to supercruise. Singapore was also reportedly unimpressed by Rafale's much vaunted 'Omni role' capability. "Show us, properly" was said to have been the reaction, according to Defence Analysis. The lack of official comment by Singapore leads many to dismiss such criticism as unreliable hearsay, however.

With admittedly under-powered engines and a passive electron-scan radar viewed by many as a technological dead end (again according to Defence Analysis), Dassault badly need to fund the advanced F3 variant, but this is unlikely to happen quickly without an export customer (according to Aviation Week and Space Technology). A fully-developed F3 would, however, seem more likely to gain export success.

Whatever Rafale's supposed 'weaknesses' it must be acknowledged that the type has been quietly gathering real operational experience in the air-to-air role since the first Rafale Ms were delivered to the Aéronavale, and this alone is a significant advantage, giving the type great credibility. Moreover, while development of some competing aircraft is often delayed because manufacturers have been unwilling to press ahead 'at risk' the relationship between Dassault and the French government and military has allowed the development programme to press ahead at a ferocious pace.

Specifications

General characteristics

• Crew: 1 or 2
• Length: 15.3 m (50 ft 2 in)
• Wingspan: 10.9 m (35 ft 9 in)
• Height: 5.34 m (17 ft 6 in)
• Wing area: 46 m² (ft²)
• Empty: 9,060 kg (19,975 lb)
• Loaded: 14,710 kg (32,330 lb)
• Maximum takeoff: 19,700 kg (42,990 lb)
• Powerplant: 2 Snecma M88-2 turbofans each rated at 75 kN (17,000 lbf) in reheat

Performance

• Maximum speed:
  • Mach 2.0+ — 2325km/h at altitude
• Range: : 1850 km (1150 miles)
• Service ceiling: 18,000 m (60,000 ft)
• Rate of climb: 333 m/min(>10,000 ft/min)
• Wing loading: 320 kg/m² (65.6 lb/ft²)
• Thrust/weight: 6.39 N/kg (0.725 lbf/lb)

Armament

• Guns: 1 30 mm GIAT 30/719B cannon
• Missiles: 8 AAMs - MICA, AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-132 ASRAAM, AIM-120 AMRAAM MBDA Meteor, air-to-ground weapons inc. MBDA Apache, SCALP EG, ASMP nuclear missile
• Bombs: Various
• Other:

Related content

Comparable aircraft: Eurofighter Typhoon - F-35

Designation series: Mirage F1 - Mirage 2000 - Rafale - Neuron

See also:

• List of fighter aircraft

References

• Flight International article,French Fusion. Retrieved 30 August, 2005.
• Fighter non-comparison table

External links

• Air Combat Information Group, Dassault Rafale by Vineet Srivastava
• Air Combat aircrafts, Dassault Rafale
• Vector, Dassault Rafale
• SPECTRA SYSTEM, Dassault Rafale