"MACE XIX" - The Rafale facing the ground-to-air threat
Update: 08/01/2018 - Management: Air Force
From 12 to 21 July 2018, the Air Force deployed three Rafale on Zvolen Air Base in Slovakia, as part of the 19 th edition of the NATO exercise "MACE". The latter made it possible to confront the aircraft with an exotic threat of the first order on a vast firing range. This rare opportunity opened up the possibility of verifying the performance of equipment, techniques and tactics that force personnel may be required to use in operation.
The exercise was also an opportunity to interact with the allied forces present (Finland with three F18s, Denmark with three F16s, Norway with a DA20 or Slovakia with two MIG 29), facilitators (Slovakia or Bulgaria with the ground-to-air threat ) or analysis (Spain, Italy, England, United States, Turkey) on the ways of doing each.
We must underline the excellent reception of Slovakia, host country.
The Fighter and Experimentation Squadron (ECE) 1/30 and the Electronic Warfare Programming and Training Squadron (EPIGE) 07.330 were able to exploit the possibilities offered by the exercise, thanks to quality support from Aeronautical Technical Support Squadron (ESTA) 15/30, which ensured 100% aircraft availability.
This invaluable confrontation was rich in lessons and made it possible in particular to refine the self-protection expertise of EPIGE 07.330, to highlight the very good efficiency of the teams and the know-how of the military air expertise center and of the Air Force in general.
This process of increasing the power of electronic warfare in the broad sense is part of a global process aimed at filling the deficit in this transversal field which contributes to the “fog of war”, dear to Clausewitz.