Know Your 'Rafale'

[Drsomnath999]

FROM COMBAT AIRCRAFT MONTHLY DEC 2012

 

[Neil]

Somewhere in the Mediterranean:

 

[Armand2REP]

It is a regular jammer. It doesn't have the kind of module count to do what pods can already do. I am not saying Spectra is bad. I am saying lets not put it on a pedestal. Meaning Dassault keeps advertising Rafale's "Omnirole" capability that can help it target an air target and a ground target at once. It is nice to say it and read it on paper but in reality you would still prefer you handle one task at a time and most of the time you would face a single target assignment anyway.

Also, no it is not the only jammer that can play truant with another AESA system. AESA is important, but is definitely overhyped in the media, like it is some kind of one answer to all problems technology. Spectra has everything that other older EW systems have. Like a RWR, MAWS, LWS, a jammer system and a decoy dispenser. Basically, a more refined self protection suite supported by a very advanced CIP based computer system. I suppose that's where Rafale's advantage lies, the computers.

It is not a regular jammer. It is a solid state jammer with many more frequency and modulation channels. That means it can jam the most complex radar scans including AESA. It doesn't have as many channels as a full AESA radar, but then it isn't going to be scanned by all the modules of that radar. When it comes to detecting targets, you want to be able to see as much of the battlefield and airspace at once, it is called SA and extremely important. Spectra maps radar threats and catalogues them to give it an ID, you get a full picture of emitting surface and air threats giving the pilot the SA he needs to survive. Red Flag was a good example of why, MKI suffered tremendous losses to surface threats while Rafale was able to complete its missions without incident. The processing power is important for identifying and tracking threats and its mulit-frequency antennas enable that processor to meet highly evolved signals and counter them. You are used to DRFM jammers able to deal with Soviet Era radars, but Spectra counters even more sophisticated threats that are excellent for anyone facing advanced Western radars.

Active cancellation will work against older systems, no point if the enemy ECCM is superior to what your system can manage. Something that will be overhyped in the future but will work only in selective cases, especially when some country's air defence system is still old. Everybody and their brother is researching it now. Actually, this tech is heavily dependent on the enemy systems being inferior. Another double edged sword.

The simpler the radar, the easier it is to spoof it. The goal is to have enough channels and processing power to analyze and emit the frequencies to cancel even the most advanced radars. Spectra can cancel simple radar signals already.

Degrading enemy systems is all well and good, overdoing it is bad when the enemy can counter it. Probably one of the best ways to receive a nice big missile straight up the area where the sun don't shine.

Spectra isn't a stand-off jammer. It is for self defence and scrambles returns to the enemy receiver so that it is indistinguishable from clutter. It is quite passive in its nature. Now if you jam with a Growler you are going to get a huge blank arc on your screen giving bearing to the jamming aircraft.

But, yeah. It is one of the firsts of its kind and way better than anything our enemies can field for a long time.

Yeah, and it is way better than Elta DRFM jammers too.

 

[p2prada]

It is not a regular jammer. It is a solid state jammer with many more frequency and modulation channels.

It is not as big as an advantage to consider it is overwhelming.

Red Flag was a good example of why, MKI suffered tremendous losses to surface threats while Rafale was able to complete its missions without incident.

It depends on a lot of factors and we are not privy to it. Spectra is good, but MKIs were not carrying self protection suites, they were not allowed to use a self protection suites and neither were they allowed to use flares and chaffs. So, that is not a comparison worth noting.

The simpler the radar, the easier it is to spoof it. The goal is to have enough channels and processing power to analyze and emit the frequencies to cancel even the most advanced radars. Spectra can cancel simple radar signals already.

Spectra modules are very small. You are saying this by keeping a radar in mind, Spectra modules are very tiny in comparison. It does what other jammers do.

Spectra isn't a stand-off jammer. It is for self defence and scrambles returns to the enemy receiver so that it is indistinguishable from clutter. It is quite passive in its nature. Now if you jam with a Growler you are going to get a huge blank arc on your screen giving bearing to the jamming aircraft.

A self protection suite targets incoming missiles. If you jam a missile with HOJ features, it's gonna come straight at you. Comparatively in case of a 5th gen aircraft, the missile seeker cannot see it and without jamming signals, the missile cannot HOJ either.

Yeah, and it is way better than Elta DRFM jammers too.

Subjective. Yes, it is advertised as the world's most advanced blah, blah. But the second most advanced will be right behind it. What makes Spectra isn't the jamming capability itself, but its ability to process the information using the very powerful computers. So, add such computers on the SH with an older suite capable of using it, it will still be as effective as Spectra.

 

[bhramos]

India Pak at war....Paki F16 pleading before Indian Rafale....;-P

 

[arya]

just one question when its going to induct in IAF

rest thing is waste for me

 

[Drsomnath999]

Air&Cosmos 2337; Nov 30:

Fighter aircraft market share 2012-2021 according to Forecast International:

Dassault will produce Rafale well beyond 2020:

- 114 Rafale delivered end 2012.
- Discussions are underway about tranche 5: number of aircraft; number of B, C, M; configuration (very likely F3-R with PDL NG, Meteor ...).


COURTESY:OLYBRIUS
THANK U FOR THE PICS MATE



WTF tranche 5 huh?????? dont know what plans have dassault in their minds

 

[p2prada]

This would be nice. Get the 126+63 in a F4+F5 combination during production.

 

[Drsomnath999]

^^^
lollz it's my mistake mate

actually tranche 5 = F4 no new plane

A very interesting article below about tranche 5

Paths for a future F4 standard
DSI May 2010


In 2019 or 2020 should start deliveries for tranche 5 Rafale, to be ordered late 2015. Already, the various stakeholders of the program are working to trace the contours of the standard - F4 - of these weapons systems. The PEA for exploring paths for capacitive improvements have started last fall. The aim is to commission a review of all areas, to examine every major system or equipment and try to evaluate which technology advances are expected to be at the rendez vous and those which couldn't be. Or those for whom it will be be possible to justify and obtain budgetary credits and those for whom it will not be possible! This explains the contents of this future F4 standard is still no freezed. However, the operationals are almost already expressing the considerable importance to dispose of a viewfinder-HMD. In A2A, it would allow one rafale to launch its MICA on a hostile aircraft without having to roll up in a close dogfight, which requires to be rid of its load of bombs. So to be able to continue its A2G original mission.

Essential viewfinder-HMD.

Beyond, the airmen consider that the viewfinder-HMD would provide an added value in the field of air-ground support, allowing to design to the weapon system, with the cross of the HMD, a ground target which would be in lateral or rear area and not necessarily, as it is the case today, in the front line sector of the aircraft. Or to design, via the Link-16, the ground target to a team member taking over. Thales evoked the possibility of an efficient equipment for the Rafale coming from the current Tiger HMD . And it seems quite clear that such equipment is much anticipated by potential export customers of the Rafale.
In the A2G field , operationals intend to have a laser designation pods even more efficient than the Damocles just arrived today in the qualification phase. They want the capacity to determine from a 6000 m altitude if the individual located on the ground is armed or not. As for weapons, they evoke missille with double capacity air-ground and air-air. And for the AASM bombs, they emphasize the development, for the 250 kg bomb, of laser guidance in addition to the current route by GPS and inertial hybridized IR sensor, but also on the achievement for the 250 kg body , of modular charges adapted to various types of employment and target, for example to focus on the effects of detonation and reduce collateral damage. The operationals do not want the AASM 125 kg proposed by Sagem. However an AASM 1000 kg with the ability to penetrate bunkers and reinforced buildings is favorably mentioned.
The air-ground sensors of the weapon system should also provide very high definition modes to improve the tracking of ground target (GMTI GMTT modes for the radar) with more complex interweaving of air-ground and air- air modes (monitoring of aerial threats in various areas while providing a ground tracking function). In the A2A field, one will have to start thinking about the studies for a MICA successor and to improve a little more the capabilities for identification of non-cooperative target (NCTR). In the matter of data links, including the Link-16, one will have to make greater use of satellite links. And the sea serpent of steering nozzle for the M88 is discussed again. It is also question of developing a stealth kit. Work will be launched to reduce the RCS by modifying the coating of the cans under the Rafale.

INCAS [Insert New Additional Capacity for SPECTRA] for SPECTRA 5T.

Already, the authorities and industrials are preparing evolutions for SPECTRA , to allow it to remain very effective when will start coming the tranche 5 Rafale. The PEA INCAS (Insert New Additional Capacity for SPECTRA), notified last September by the DGA to Thales Airborne Systems and MBDA, is indeed preparing SPECTRA 5T. The real challenge, according to Thales engineers, is to think, not only about the original equipment on board the new tranche 5 Rafale, but also about the retrofit in the framework of a prospective site to put this future new standard for the rest of the fleet including the first Rafale delivered.
An ambition much more delicate than it seems at first glance, because it need to evolve SPECTRA within acceptable limits - volume, mass, energy, cable, Interactions - by the first Rafale series, although their architecture has been conceived in the late 1980s. This requires, according to Thales officials, treasures of cunning and ingenuity. We must keep reaching an extreme interchangeability. Because the great longevity planned for the Rafale actually complicates the task. One need to design systems, allowing them the opportunity to integrate with minimal impact new technologies able to cope with post-2020 or even 2030 threats, still not easily discernible. As now formulated, the fundamental objective of SPECTRA 5T is therefore to be able to detect, even further, more discreet and even furtive threats.
How? by integrating, at the air entrances more efficient EM broadband receptors. Unlike current SPECTRA, with receivers still mixing analog and digital, those of SPECTRA 5T will be entirely digital. Which, incidentally, will facilitate transport and data management. More, added to future new processing algorithms, this increased "digitization" of equipement should provide a significant improvement in terms of sensitivity and angular measurement, with the added advantage of greater receptor compactness . This will allow, with equal volume, to much more! It is certainly delicate, given the sensitivity of the topic,to enter further into the details of improvements in matter of performance and functionality. But it must be very clear: according to Thales engineers, it is a revolution for technology and capability at the same level as it is for the RBE2 Radar evolving from a passive PESA antenna to the active AESA.

The GaN revolution.

This "revolution" also relates to jamming equipment for the future SPECTRA 5T. These transmitters, integrated at the top of the drift and the forward fuselage, near the apices and before the canard, will benefit from the integration of a new technology the gallium nitride (GaN) to replace the arsenide gallium currently used. The use of this broadband semiconductor, still unique within the European Union, very hard and with a very high thermal capacity, is expected to reduce significantly the electrical consumer and heating for a given power. The solid state antennas will provide a much greater lens precision with a very narrow emission beam. Note that to avoid any risk of external pressure on eventual Rafale export sales, the GaN components, like the gallium arsenide modules already used for the new RBE2 active antenna ,will be produced in France by a factory of the Franco-German company ( EADS / Thales joint-venture) UMS. The Thales engineers are also working to modify the current distribution between reception and jamming functions in SPECTRA. With, for example, the idea to integrate, for SPECTRA 5T, a multisignal RF receiver within the jammers. Viewing similarities between jammers and receivers components, such an approach would be technologically feasible and, potentially, would provide interesting synergies. Nevertheless, the collocation of such equipment would introduce real technical difficulties - EM compatibility -, though perfectly manageable. This pass, to avoid to perturb the receiver with collocated jamming emission, by appealing different waveforms for each equipment, with a wider range of frequence than currently employed on Spectra and with the implementation of active filters. In contrast, the locations and volumes vested to such equipment would remain unchanged from today. No way to modify anything in the aerodynamics of the aircraft or to impact the structure of the cell. Similarly, these changes would occur at energy isoconsumption [same energy consumption]. Asked whether the integration of tracted active EM decoys - in use with F/A-18E/F, B-1 and Typhoon - could be an interesting track for SPECTRA 5T, Thales engineers , as also the operationals, replied by expressing doubts about the broad effectiveness of the formula. It is difficult to re-roll the lure in flight and it must be dropped before landing. Hooked from a certain distance behind the carrier, it could allow a foreign fire control to recognize it as a decoy and, paradoxically, to facilitate the detection of the real target. Certainly, the tracted active EM jammer provides good angular jamming. But the SPECTRA ability to use jamming in cooperative mode - mode still insufficiently cleared by the operationals - is expected to balance the absence of tracted decoys on the Rafale.
What is almost certain, however, is that SPECTRA 5T will implement dropped active EM lures . They should be able to simulate the RCS of a Rafale and to track, thanks to the deployment of a small wing, a trajectory similar to the simulation of an airplane. This had already been the subject of studies and demonstration trials during the 1990s. It seems that the expected performance of these "dropped" lures are higher than those tracted. Nevertheless, studies will be launched to assess the interest of the latter. The carriage of additional IR cartridges on some external payload points is also expected. Although the PEA INCAS has been notified in November 2009, the study of the SPECTRA 5T architecture system have already made good progress. Suitable demonstrators for various equipment should begin to work next year. J.-L ®

 

[Drsomnath999]

PIRACY IS RAMPANT NOWADAYS

someone copied my thread without even giving credit to me & on top of it even saying this shamelessly

All the information here is copied from different website and blog to help people who want to know about Rafale and learn about the aircraft.

Indian Defence Goal: RAFALE'S MINI ENCYLOPEDIA FOR IT'S FANBOYZ

 

[Yusuf]

PIRACY IS RAMPANT NOWADAYS

someone copied my thread without even giving credit to me & on top of it even saying this shamelessly


Indian Defence Goal: RAFALE'S MINI ENCYLOPEDIA FOR IT'S FANBOYZ

We can take action only if all your posts are exclusive to this forum.

 

[cloud_9]

Flying the Dassault Rafale

 

[Snuggy321]

Flying the Dassault Rafale

superb video! Truly an aircraft for pilots made by pilots.

 

[redragon]

just one question when its going to induct in IAF

rest thing is waste for me

IAF has declared to postpone that due to tightening budget, you have to wait longer

 

[redragon]

I think you will get the first one at 2017 as the earliest.

 

[mikhail]

I think you will get the first one at 2017 as the earliest.

nope sunny boy we are getting at least a squadron of Rafales by 2015(they will be bought directly off the shelf)!so i guess we won't have to wait for 2017..

 

[redragon]

nope sunny boy we are getting at least a squadron of Rafales by 2015(they will be bought directly off the shelf)!so i guess we won't have to wait for 2017..

Sure, only if your government didn't delay to pass the budget for that. opps, they already did

 

[Armand2REP]

Most of that stuff is property of Dassault so I don't see what the issue is. It is just screenshots from the Foxtrot mag.

 

[Snuggy321]

I think you will get the first one at 2017 as the earliest.

Deal will be signed in this fiscal year, so somewhere early next year. It wont take 4 years to build a fighter aircraft which is already in production

 

[Abhi9]

Vishnu som flies the rafale on Bigger faster

http://livefist.blogspot.com/2012/12/video-ndtvs-vishnu-som-flies-rafale.html