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In a ceremony headed byAdmiral Jean-Louis Battet,the French Chief of the NavalStaff, Flottille 12F - the firstRafale unit - was officially

declared combat ready, amajor step forward for theRafale programme.

After months of intense ope-rational testing, the Rafale hasnow reached full operationalcapabili ty. On Friday 25 June

2004, Flottille 12F was offi-cially granted approval toconduct offensive and defen-sive missions with its StandardF1 Rafales. From then on, the

French Navy Rafales becamefully capable of carrying outthe whole spectrum of air -superiority and air-defencemi s s ions , e i t he r f r om theCharles de Gaullenuclear car-rier or from any land base. Infact, the Rafale could have

been engaged in combat twoyear s ago. In 2002, at thepeak of Operation EnduringFreedom - the internationaleffort against terrorism - in the

Indian Ocean, Flottille 12Fflew operationally and couldhave fired air-to-air missiles toprotect the French carrier battlegroup if needed. To this day,nearly 5,000 flying hours and2,000 carrier landings havebeen recorded by the unit.

Flottille 12F, previously flying

the F-8E(FN) Crusader, wasrecommissioned in May 2001,

and has been a keyasset and player forthe tactical evalua-t i o n o f t h e n e wfighter. This evalua-tion phase is nowcompleted, and,from now on, thepilots will be able todevote their time to

tactical training.Thanks to a remar-kable collaboration betweenthe French Navy, the DGA andall the companies involved inthe programme, the Rafales

entry into service was undoub-

tedly a major success. The fighterhas been operationally testedin severe environments - extremetemperatures and high ambienthumidity levels - in the IndianOcean and the Red Sea, and itis fully compliant with the extre-mely stringent French Navy requi-rements. According to Flottille12F pilots, the Rafale has alreadydemonstrated its exceptionalqualities during numerous enga-

gements against other fighterssuch as US Navy F/A-18 Hornetsand F-14 Tomcats, Royal SaudiAir Force F-15 Eagles, andBelgian Air Force F-16 FightingFalcons. The required level of

reliability has been demons-

trated and the Thales RBE2 radarand the Thales/MBDA Spectraelectronic warfare suite haveproved extremely successful,allowing the fighter to efficientlyperform all the missions it wasenvisioned for. The Snecma M88-2 turbofan is also highly praisedby pilots and maintainers alike.Its thrust, responsiveness, relia-bility and maintainability haveset new standards: the excess

power available and the imme-diate power response give theaircraft exceptional wave-offcharacteristics, a decisive factorfor demanding carrier opera-tions.

FOXTHRETHE FIRST RAFALE UNIT

IS NOW FULLY OPERATIONAL

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Flottille12F AESA

A successful process


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During the tactical evaluationphase, Dassault Aviation and theMarine Nationale have gone evenfurther than initially planned, andthe Rafale Standard F1 can nowbe used for buddy-buddy in-flightrefuelling, a capability not envi-sioned until the delivery of theStandard F2 Rafales. What iseven more significant is the factthat the first three aircraft adaptedfor the in-flight refuelling missionwere all modified, at sea, onboardthe Charles de Gaullein the IndianOcean with minimal assistance

from France. Only three Dassaultpersonnel and three Navy spe-

cialists had to be flown to thearea. The first aircraft, RafaleM6, was modified in only eightdays by this dedicated team. The

other two fighters, M4 and M9,were both directly retrofitted byFlottille 12F specialists andtheir validation flights wereconducted by two pilots ofthe unit. A batch of five 2,000litre drop tanks was lent byDassault to supplant the 1,250litre variant in use with Flottille12F, considerably boostingthe off-load capability of theaircraft. It is worth noting thatswitching from an air-defenceconfiguration to a tanker fittakes only about 1 h 30 min.

The mod i f i e d Ra f a l e s we r eengaged operat ional ly overAfghanistan to support the effortagainst terrorism, co-operatingwi t h reconna i s sance Supe rEtendard Moderniss from Flottille17F. Two Rafales fitted with in-flight refuelling pods were capableof significantly increasing SuperEtendard Moderniss radius ofaction. Although there was noreal airborne threat in the theatre

of operations, the Rafales werealso utilised to escort the recon-naissance jets with their long-range, active radar Mica mis-si les. The abil i ty to carry out

missions as a refuelling tanker isa welcome boost to operational

flexibility: the Rafale can keep

up with any strike package sinceit can match the speed and altitudeperformance of other fighters,providing great flexibility in plan-ning and executing long-rangemissions.The comprehensive operational testprogramme set up by the FrenchNavy has resulted in the Rafalebeing a mature programme.Indeed, the omnirole fighter wassuccessfully flown in complex air-

defence missions as part of acoalition, the latest operationsover Afghanistan clearly markingthe beginning of the Rafales ope-rational career.

A new configuration tested operationally

In February 2004, the Dlgation Gnrale pour lArmement (the French Procurement Agency)

announced that the contract to develop the F3 Omnirole Standard for the Rafale had been signed.

Due to enter service in 2008, the Standard F3 will offer new, expanded capabilities for both

French Air Force and French Navy units. New functionalities for the radar include a high-resolu-

tion synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mode. With its high-quality digital images, the New Generation

Reconnaissance Pod will offer unmatched capabilities for real-time stand-of f reconnaissance.

The new Gerfaut Helmet-Mounted Sight/Display produced by Sagem will also be adopted for

Standard F3 Rafales, remarkably enhancing the lethality of the agile Mica IR missile. With the advent

of Standard F3 Rafales, new weapons such as the ASMP-A nuclear missile and the latest variant

of the acclaimed Exocet anti-ship missile will find their way into the Rafales already impressive

armament inventory, thus enhancing the firepower of the new omnirole fighter.

The future is definitively on track :Rafale Standard F3 development contract signed


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Today, the Rafa le is the on lyEuropean fighter fitted with anelectronic scanning radar. Itsremarkable RBE2 radar is alreadyin full operational service with

the French Navy and will soonenter service with the French AirForce. It is far more advancedthan legacy mechani-cally-steered radarsused by most of theRafales competitors.Their flexibility andp e r f o r m a n c e a r eclearly limited by thecomplex hydrau l icdrives associated withmoving their radar dish

around.With the adoption ofan act ive antenna,RBE2 radar performance will beeven further increased : detec-tion and tracking ranges will besignificantly improved, angularcoverage will be considerablyexpanded and reliability will beboosted to unprecedented levels.The state-of-the-art DRAA activearray is composed of numerous

solid-state transmit and receiveGaAs modules. They are used topoint and move the radar beamat an ext remely high speed.Aircrews will also benefit from

improved situational awarenesswhile observability of the aircraftwill be reduced. Additionally,the introduction of the active arraypaves the way for the develop-

ment of new radar functions insuch areas as counter-counter-measures.

The numerous T/R modules alsovirtually eliminate mechanicalbreakdowns and reliability hasbeen dramatical ly improvedthanks to an increased redun-dancy: a number of modules canfail without affecting overall radarperformance. Antenna status canbe established in real-time, and

maintenance operations pro-grammed accordingly, leadingto considerably lower operatingcosts for operators. As a result,active array technology offers

significantly greater operationalreadiness than previous antennatechnologies.To develop the DRAA, Thales hastaken advantage of its long expe-

rience in solid-state technologywhich dates back to the early 90swhen the Cobra battlefield radar

was conceived. Since then,other radar applicationshave benefited from solid-state advances, and nume-rous surface warships andground-based defence sys-tems are equipped withsuch radar systems. Thefirst development studiesfor the airborne AESAarray

for the Rafale had been car-ried out in 1999, explainsPhilippe Ramstein, Thales

Director for the Rafale Programme.The RBE2 variant currently in front-line service is already an elec-t ron i c scann ing rada r , and changes to adapt the new AESAarray are kept to a strict minimum.The DRAA fully complies with theplug-and-play concept, and thepassive and active arrays are

thus totally interchangeable. Thisclearly facilitates upgrades, soall French Rafales will have thecapability to be equipped withan AESA.

An extremely fast programme

In April 2002, the DGA, the French defence procurement agency, appointed Thales

to develop an active array radar demonstrator optimised for the Rafale omnirole

fighter. Called DRAA (Dmonstrateur Radar Antenne Active, or Active Array

Radar Demonstrator), the programme culminated in a series of demanding flight

tests to validate its detection performance. Although the development schedule was

extremely tight, the DRAA met all programme milestones on time. This Active

Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) demonstrator will pave the way to a produc-tion equipment for the Rafale.

AESA RADAR

TEST FLOWN ON RAFALE


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In December 2002, the firstflight of the AESA system wascarried out in a Mystere XX

flying test bed belonging tothe French MoD located in theFlight Test Centre at Cazaux

( S o u t h - We s t o f F r a n c e ) .S ub sequen t l y, t h e DRAAdemonstrator was fitted to two-

s e a t p r o d u c t i o nRafale B301. Fo rus, it was essentialto prove to our cus-tomers that we couldeasily fit a new arrayto the existing RBE2hardware, stresses

Jean-Marc Goujon,R a f a l e R a d a rP r o g r a m m eManager. As such,o n e o f t h e m a i ngoals of the DRAAprogramme was todemonstrate that thenew a r r ay cou ld easily be fitted to the

B301s current RBE2 electronicscanning radar without anymodifications of the whole

radar architecture. This modi-fication was a total success,Thales and Dassault engineersbeing able to complete thetask in less than three hours!This is a considerable achie-vement that proves impossiblefor our competitors who wouldhave to completely redesignand rebuild their radar sets toaccommodate an AESA.

The first flight in Rafale B301was recorded from Istres inMay 2003. During the com-prehensive f l ight tes t pro -gramme, the fully integratedBand X DRAA radar success-fully transmitted, received andcollected radar data, confir-ming all Thales prediction, aclear indication that the com-pany totally masters AESAtechnology.

GIE - Rafale International78, quai Marcel Dassault 92552 Saint-Cloud cedex 300 - France

www.dassault-aviation.comwww.snecma.com

www.thalesgroup.com PEMA2b

-PhotosF.R

obineau-DassaultAviation-MarineNationale

Test-flying the DRAA

For Thales, the next stage of theongoing development processfor the Rafale fighter is theDRAAMA (Dmons t ra teurRadar Antenne Active ModesAvancs, or Advanced ModesA c t i v e A r r a y R a d a r

Demonstrator) programmewhich was officially launchedby the DGA in Ju ly 2004.Optimised to prepare full-scaleproduction, the DRAAMA arraywill be entirely new and willbenefit from the latest deve-lopments in radar/solid-state

technology. It is worth notingthat al l components of theDRAAMA antenna will be builtin Europe, a key factor for totalautonomy and independence.By the end of 2007/ear ly2008, DRAAMA development

and test flying programme willhave been completed, andqualification should have beengranted by the DGA.The advent of the DRAA andDRAAMA programmes willallow engineers to shortly equipproduction Rafales with cut-

ting edge radar technology.Developed in a record time,the DRAA radar already provedthat Thales is fully capable ofmeeting stringent requirementswith state-of-the-art solutions.With the AESA, the Rafale

Omnirole fighter will undoub-tedly become more lethal, moresurvivable, more reliable andmore affordable, key advan-tages for operators in searchof the ultimate figh ter.

DRAAMA towards the serial production AESA RBE2

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