Dassault Rafale - Updates and Discussion

which one will you sir among Rafale & F15 EX as best fighter, if you set aside the unpredictability of Uncle sam.
The F-15EX undoubtedl,
F-15has a higher climb rate and better supersonic performance, which gives it an advantage in BVR air combat.
The T/W ratio of the F15 is higher, and its aerodynamic design is more suitable for supersonic performance. All of these are in line with the concept of BVR air combat.
The F15 is a heavy-duty fighter aircraft. It has a larger radar aperture, higher bomb load capacity and fuel capacity, and a larger fuselage space which can provide room for the upgrade of electronic equipment.
 
The question is How good is SPECTRA as compared to US EW suites

Radars APG series is already well known

Our problem is US love for Pakistan
SPECTRA defeated multiple PL-15s fired at the plane. So it's awesome. EPAWSS is equally good but all US jets are a strict no no for us. Sorry to break the hearts of numerous F-35/F-15EX supporters of this board, but we ain't buying a 'Murican fighter-jet, ever. Period. Mark it.
 
Couldn't help but interject...you should read this thread from the linked post onwards, where our friend @randomradio was arguing with me that AWACS were useless and that all of the AWACS' roles will be performed solely by fighters alone...and not even any future fighter but the existing Rafale itself:

For 4th gen fighters and Indian landscape AWACS is required, there is no other choice.

AWACS platform will still be required if Rafales F5, F35, AMCA can play the same role.

Reason: You can't mix a non stealth platform AWACS with a AEW on a stealth platform when on a mission inside enemy airspace. Once the 5th gen fighters are inside enemy airspace they will cut the comm and will fly as mini AEW within the enemy territory. The current Op Midnight Hunter had F35 and F22 flying ahead of B2 for scanning and elnit and detection of Iranian AD.
F-15has a higher climb rate and better supersonic performance, which gives it an advantage in BVR air combat.

BS!
 
Why is the RBE2-XG not much better than Uttam or Virupaksha in your opinion?
Because RBE2-XG will be inducted with all the modes and data bases of the AESA, itself inducted with all the PESA ones.
ie mature from the beginning.
Any brand new radar need time to create, fine tune and validate all the modes, one by one. This is why they mainly arrived on market with only limited air to air modes.
 
We are not sure, of the two.
This is the truth. When everyone talked about loss of 3 Rafale with deep fake images, I was the one who was defending Rafale. My problem with Rafale s not about its capabilities but the very limited weapons choice. Let the truth come out. Rafale went very close to harms way and came out unscheched. But it will not happen every time.
 
The F-15EX undoubtedl,
F-15has a higher climb rate and better supersonic performance, which gives it an advantage in BVR air combat.
The T/W ratio of the F15 is higher, and its aerodynamic design is more suitable for supersonic performance. All of these are in line with the concept of BVR air combat.
The F15 is a heavy-duty fighter aircraft. It has a larger radar aperture, higher bomb load capacity and fuel capacity, and a larger fuselage space which can provide room for the upgrade of electronic equipment.
First time the CCP shill is actually correct. BVR is physics dependent.
 
Did they give up on MRO for M88 with HAL ?

HAL is already over burdened with work and orders

Anyways ,
HAL and Dassault Aviation or Safran can never work together again after the bitter experience of Rafale negotiations that lasted 3 years

It is our Good fortune that Mirage 2000 upgradation
could be completed
 
Because RBE2-XG will be inducted with all the modes and data bases of the AESA, itself inducted with all the PESA ones.
ie mature from the beginning.
Any brand new radar need time to create, fine tune and validate all the modes, one by one. This is why they mainly arrived on market with only limited air to air modes.
Uttam isn't designed/being designed with EW capabilities in mind i beleive, XG i think it will have EW/Jamming capabilities. If that's the case XG is miles ahead over Uttam.
 
The air package that assisted the strike consisted of F-22 Raptors and F-35 Lightning IIs, which conducted intelligence, surveillance, and escort functions. These fifth-generation stealth attack aircraft provided air dominance and denied interception attempts.

How does the world's most advanced aircraft – the F-35 Lightning II – detect and defeat ground-based and airborne threats while using electronic protection, support, and attack capabilities to advance its missions? It has the world's most advanced, fully-integrated electronic warfare (EW) and countermeasures technology – the AN/ASQ-239 system – designed, produced, modernized, and sustained by BAE Systems.

Our AN/ASQ-239 system is a next-generation electronic warfare suite providing offensive and defensive options for the pilot and aircraft to counter current and emerging threats. Its advanced technology optimizes situational awareness while helping to identify, monitor, analyze, and respond to threats. Advanced avionics and sensors provide a real-time, 360º view of the battlespace, maximizing detection ranges and giving pilots evasion, engagement, countermeasure, and jamming options.
https://www.baesystems.com/en-us/product/an-asq-239-f-35-ew-countermeasure-system

The F-35's still WIP. It's in IOC stage today. Full capability is expected only by early 2030s. It needs certain upgrades completed before it can handle all the capabilities it's ben designed to do.
https://www.baesystems.com/en-us/product/an-asq-239-f-35-ew-countermeasure-system
This is good for a stealth aircraft, minimum communication in a confined area where the target is, along with the strike package, just like above where B2 were flying just behind F22 and F35. It's useful in this context. This is not possible with Rafales as of now if they are carrying a strike package.

In context of Pakistan, their width is not much hence even long range ASM does the job, but this advantage won't be there against China. The area is huge.

Rafale F4 can do that too.

They do think that there is a need to make F35 as some sort of AWACS because they will be penetrating if the payload is small and they can't communicate with AWACS.

Concept is, a universal BMC2 4th, 5th gen aircrafts along with naval forces, and then within this a subset of stealth BMC2.

It can't be done in its current configuration.

But if they are developing there must be some reason, must be better than PL15 and with better scanner. Otherwise there is no point.

Yes, there is no point then. If you cannot take out a target with 2 or 3 missiles, then the SAM becomes impractical and would require replacement.

If a flight of 24 jets show up and you need to fire 240 missiles to bring them down, you'd need 40 launchers in one place, and that's not realistic. 4-8 launchers are the best you can do. So 72 ready-to-fire missiles, that's then best you can get out of an operational area, that's also the size of the Indian Army's SAM regiment. In reality, it's further divided by 3 and spread out even more. So consistently firing 10 missiles per jet is not realistic.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rajput Lion
Nah, this is too funny. I'm gonna keep making you ask.

You see, it took up all of my mental capacity to show you what HBJ meant. Showing you MBJ & LBJ is obviously beyond my capabilities. You're gonna have to do it yourself.

Then how do you know or sure your opinions are right?

What I asked you is the basic of basics. The most simplest detail when it comes to this subject is the diffrence in band designations.

I'm literally asking you what VIBGYOR means; Violet to Red. And instead of the visible spectrum, I'm asking for the microwave spectrum. My question is at such an elementary level.

If you do not have the absolute most basic amount of knowledge in this subject, then how do you actually have opinions about it.

I find it funny that you think being ignorant is funny.

So Gen. Chauhan is a Pakistani? Thanks for letting me know.

Even he never said anything about Rafales being shot down.

Rafale doesn't currently have any real anti-radar solution. SmartGlider/Cruiser whatever it is would only come by 2030 on the F5.

F-35 can at least carry HARM, or rely on 4th gens to launch it/AARGM from further back. By the time Rafale gets its first AASF, F-35 would be having an internally-carried AARGM-ER with 2-3x the range & over 3x the speed of the SmartGlider/Cruiser.

Hammer? :ROFLMAO: So if you're gonna just drop anything that goes boom on a radar and call it an ARM, at that point even a dumb bomb is an ARM. What a joke.

Again, SCALP is not an ARM either. It's just a subsonic cruise missile. If you're gonna use subsonic CMs as ARMs (stupid solution, but that's what you've resorted to cuz you can't bring yourself to admit that the French made a mistake*** in not developing a real ARM earlier), the F-35 too can use internally-carried JSM for the same range as SCALP, or JASSM-ER in beast mode to get twice the range of SCALP.

But that would be stupid. Which is why the intended solution for anti-radar role is the AARGM-ER that has the ability to transit rapidly, passively locate emitters & hit them at high terminal speeds. Missiles like SCALP, JSM or JASSM cannot do any of those jobs.

***A mistake which they themselves admit they did:


"...It is precisely the development of this ammunition, called AASF, which has just been announced by the same Ministry of the Armed Forces which judged this need unnecessary, just three years ago, to arm the future Rafale F5, and its Loyal Wingmen combat drone...."

"....At that time, France believed that the Rafale, its SPECTRA self-protection system, and its laser-guided and then GPS-guided precision munitions, will be sufficient to neutralize the few threats of this type that could emerge, while the country was firmly anchored in the period of the benefits of peace, and the reduction in defense credits that it entailed."

ARM has a very different purpose. The reason why the F-35 has to carry an external ARM is 'cause the jet is still a WIP, that's all.

You are pissing on the SCALP, but the Americans use Tomahawk for SEAD. Another fact you didn't know.

Knowing the difference requires military context, because expendable is a general term while attritable is most often only applicable in a military context...which I already provided with the example of a Shahed & an MQ-9 but obviously you're too dense to understand that.

Hint: Think about why they're comfortable letting MQ-9s, RQ-170s or even RQ-4s overfly regions like Iran/Yemen which have repeatedly proven that they can be shot down? Do you think they'd have done that if their only option was U-2 and it was leading to a Gary Powers-like situation every other week?

MQ-9 is not attritable or expendable.

You've answered yourself by quoting the prices. Unfortunately you didn't take it to conclusion. You forgot to add the F-35 or other manned fighters that cost ~$100M or more. Everything is relative.

No, nothing is relative. Expendable and attritable mean the same things. Looks like even Defensenews failed to educate you.

Now if you're in a high risk penetrative mission with a $100M fighter and a $20M wingman, which of the two is more expendable in a situation where a loss is inevitable?

If you think a cheaper, unmanned drone is just as non-expendable as a costlier manned fighter carrying a pilot you spent 10 years training, you obviously don't understand why the concept of CCAs was even created in the first place. The CCA can be asked to sacrifice itself to save the fighter if it comes down to it. But one pilot cannot be asked to sacrifice himself to save his wingman.

That's why the CCA is more expendable.

It's not "more expendable." The basic design is "non-expendable."

The difference between expendable and non-expendable is with expendable, the air force is trying to successfully get rid of it.

CCA is cheaper, not "more expendable." The F-35 is not more expendable than the B-2 either.

The benefit is for everyone - including Govt. If the forces come out & say we need 5th gen ASAP, that makes the Govt's negotiating position weaker when dealing with US or Russia for an off-the-shelf F-35 or Su-57.

If we didn't need 5G before 2040, we wouldn't have got into the FGFA program back in 2010.

The requirement was always there. What we were lacking was a viable plane that actually does the job we require a 5G to do. The Felon couldn't match up to our requirements back then, while geopolitical equations kept us away from F-35.

Of course nobody in IAF is gonna say this out loud without getting in trouble with MEA/MOD/GOI for complicating matters.

You're an idiot if you think the forces can publicly lie about their requirements.

The magic which knows that they haven't actually gone through with any of those 'procurement decisions'. Still waiting for MRFA AoN nearly a decade after we signed on for 36 Rafales.

The magic that also knows that if it was something they actually desperately needed, GOI/MoD would even be willing to go G2G for. Like they did for the S400s.

🤣

F-15EX & Rafale are more expensive because they aren't being produced in large enough numbers. But that's not the whole story, cuz unlike foreign imports we have to spend on development cost as well when we're going for domestic solutions. Neither F-15 nor Rafale were more expensive to develop than F-35.

If ORCA were to be pursued in place of AMCA i.e. for the same number of airframes, it would be less expensive not more. Both to develop (obviously, as you don't need to spend as much on R&D for stealth materials or refining airframe shape through RCS studies) and to buy or maintain.

TEDBF is too small a procurement (only <90 airframes expected total), so all the development cost has to be amortized over a smaller number of sales, obviously the per-unit cost will be more than it would have otherwise been had the procurement been for a more reasonable number of airframes like ~150. But in reality the TEDBF as we see it may not actually get anywhere as IN is evolving its requirement toward a 5th gen fighter instead.

That basically means AMCA will be cheaper due to its larger scale. Still defeats your argument.

Cuz that's not the defining capability for the role. It's just an ancillary advantage.

The real point of a stealth vs non-stealth jet is always the enhanced survivability in a modern threat environment.

Lol. Those are not ancillary advantages. Those are actually bragged about as core features.

They do cuz France isn't dealing with a crazed, Islamist, nuclear loose-cannon. We are. AND we also have a more sophisticated hostile nuclear power right next door. Unlike France, both of these are enemies we have to fight alone. And unlike France, we have no buffer territory either.

Pakistan is a far more rational actor than the US, never mind Russia or China. That's what's helped them survive all these years. Dude, you have no idea what you're talking about.

Except in France's case, Rafale would only ever be fighting Russia/China alongside F-35s, F-22, B-2s, Typhoons and the whole of NATO. In short, it doesn't have to do a lot of the roles required of a frontline fighter. Which is partly the reason why they're so lax about implementing a lot of capabilities on it which the Americans had done on their 4th gen fighters by the 80s itself, like a proper ARM for example.

France's requirement is to be able to fight their enemies alone. This is what CdG had decided in the 50s, and this is what France still pursues as a doctrine.

It's also why Rafale has been designed the way it has been.

No, not by a long shot. We stopped too soon.

Nah, it's over for them. Even they realize that.

As Tom Cooper said, if India could attack their core nuclear facilities and C&C without blowback, then it's pointless to discuss further.

We took out their C&C in 3 places and their access tunnel at Kirana. What it means is we can not just prevent them from using nukes, but we can even launch our own nukes at them without expecting a retaliation.

They aren't. Their plan is to neutralize any possibility of India creating trouble for them on the Himalayan front while they are busy trying to take Taiwan (which may very well bring in the US & Japan). That requires them to address us, one way or the other, before launching the Taiwan op.

Getting us bogged down in a war with Pakistan serves their interests well. They'd actually prefer a series of limited conflicts rather than a single big war. There's a reason why the J-35 deliveries are being hastened.

If that doesn't work, they'll decide to fight us themselves in an attempt to inflict a quick & humiliating defeat. We just have to make that unviable.

The Chinese backed out. They are not gonna bother us until they deal with the US first. They decided that last year, after the US elections.

If we have to travel across the Pacific, we won't. But we don't have to.

What's that go to do with SSNs? France uses theirs to protect their own coasts, as do the Russians and Chinese.

What French territories is China around?

To get to New Caledonia/French Polynesia, they have to go past the First & Second Island Chains. To get to Reunion, they have to go past the First chain, Malacca strait (Changi base) & Diego Garcia. Not to mention, any attack on French territories is likely to bring the US & UK in to support France.

To get to us, they just need to cross the first chain & Malacca. And nobody is likely to join a war against China on our behalf.

And that's if you totally ignore the elephant in the room which is the LAC and the fact that China is already illegally occupying our territory (Aksai Chin) & claims several other parts of our country as their own.

Not to mention, this is while our survivable deterrent is still nascent & the fact that China has scores of tactical missiles that can reach any part of the Indian heartland & centres of power whereas the only way they can threaten France in a similar way is to send a carrier group into the Atlantic or Med to attack Paris (which would trigger Article 5 anyway).

So tell me again, who is under greater threat? Who is playing with greater stakes on the table?

China can operate freely in the South Pacific due to their proximity to the SCS. China cannot operate freely in the IOR.

You keep repeating this, but India is a lot safer than France. It's a credit to our policy, something France and many other countries have failed to achieve.

Cuz unless you're backing it up with a considerably higher power source (which you aren't, T-REX only provides evolutionary improvement in electrical output over M88-2), GaN-on-Diamond only represents incremental improvement over GaN-on-SiC. And whatever efficiency improvement you achieve is being offset by the fact it'll be having a smaller array size than either Uttam or Virupaksha.

Hence, it won't be much better.

Explain.

It can, just not to it's full potential. Due to reasons I said above.

Oh and did you notice that they seem to have dropped all those conformal tile arrays from the F5?

Gt8gg-Tb0AAtp6r.jpg:large

Are you seriously taking this as a template for the F5 in 2025? 🙃

Now, think about why that is. Is it because they finally figured out that they aren't gonna have the electrical output to drive all those sensors? Hmm...if only someone had told you exactly that a long time back.

Oh wait, I did!

Oh, yeah? Then kindly explain. How much power would the radars require and how much electricity can the engines generate?

The F-135 is already a 5th gen engine. It's sufficient to power the GaN radar functions. But APG-81/85, unlike the RBE series, are designed to be a primary Electronic Attack vector. The ECU upgrade is needed to power the GaN radar's upgraded jamming functions to their full potential.

Oh, really? Kindly explain.

Eh? All stealth jets have a beast mode. Even AMCA or FCAS. That doesn't mean you're giving up on stealth.

Beast mode is giving up on stealth. That's the whole point of it.

That's why I said SCALP is a stupid way to conduct DEAD.

Can you explain why the Americans used Tomahawks for SEAD and DEAD?

So you're of the opinion that he was talking about all the other losses EXCEPT for Rafale? What made you think that?

That's actually what I'm asking you. What gives you the impression that a Rafale was lost to enemy fire based on what the CDS said?

He said 6 jets shot down was a lie. So we know it's much lower than 6. Then why can't it be the Mig-29 or MKI or M2000 or Jaguar or even the Mig-21? Why did you jump straight to Rafale?

Already explained.

We never hide blue-on-blue, so friendly fire is out of the question. A crash due to a mechanical/technical problem isn't something that 'changing tactics' would fix.

So what does that leave on the table?

The IAF has not revealed any operational details yet.

Where did I say that only high-speed is needed? I said both are needed for different roles. High speed & long range for standoff strikes against a fully intact IADS. Low speed/low range for taking care of other emitters which you may want to take out via penetration after the IADS is degraded/destroyed.

🤣

What you said:
Even against a relatively poor IADS like Pakistan's, SCALP suffered too much attrition. It's just too slow. An enemy radar would turn off & relocate to the next pincode by the time a subsonic turbojet gets there. You need something that flies much, much faster in order to quickly & reliably take out the enemy's active emitters to degrade their IADS before releasing cruise missiles like SCALP or Nirbhay.

That means ideally you need a Ramjet/Scramjet-based solution, and if that's not yet available then you need a solid rocket-based solution like the Rudram-II/III or AARGM-ER. The Rudram-III can cover its 550-km envelope in just around 5-6 minutes while a SCALP would take around half an hour.


🤣

Things like PGZ-09s accompanying mobile armoured forces, PLA equivalents of low level gapfiller radars like Aslesha/Bharani etc.

There's gonna be lots of such targets which aren't capable of threatening aircraft from long ranges, those are fine for taking out with things like AASF gliders or Hammer. But if you want to use them against the S-400's acquisition/surveillance radars for example, it requires you to take on a lot more risk and suffer more platform attrition.

Oh, really? So in your esteemed knowledge, you believe that HARMs are actually usable against mobile units? Are you being serious right now?

And how would you use a HARM against a target that's been deliberately designed to seek out and destroy HARMs? When HARM is used, they try and not fly anywhere close to a SPAAG. Did you know that?

What sort of upside world do you live in? Soldiers use rifles against tanks and ATGMs against soldiers in your world too?

Read above about the different roles you need the different effectors for. It's like how you need both SM-6 and RIM-116 to defend your ship against aerial threats, but they're meant for targeting different vectors at different ranges & altitudes. Having RIM-116 doesn't mean you no longer need SM-6.

Basically, the high-speed & long-range ARMs are for the frontline duties, while the low-speed/short-range ones are for aircraft who's operating environment has already been made permissible enough by the frontline ARM strikes that degraded enemy IADS.

If you think just having the latter is sufficient, that's because you're counting on someone else to carry out the former role. For France, this works because their plan of action involves fighting alongside US or European forces who have AARGM. But in our context this means Rafale will have to depend on MKI/Tejas Mk2 for launching standoff DEAD strikes, so we have to waste MKI & Mk2 sorties to subsidize the Rafale's lack of standoff options.

This can be easily mitigated if we integrate Rudram-I/II on the Rafale. Simple.


This is what I keep trying to tell you but you refuse to listen & get into pointless arguments and whataboutery, all cuz it pains you deeply if anyone makes Dassault/MBDA look bad.

What on earth are you talking about? First of all Rudram doesn't exist, and once it shows up it will end up on Rafale. And we were never discussing this in the first place.

You were the one who started talking about slow speed against radars and I brought up the use cases of such slow speed, SCALR, Hammer, SmartGlider, Harop etc. Rudram was never in the discussion, you brought it up for no reason. Hell, you even distanced yourself from your own argument in this very post.

That's called a strawman argument. You brought it up and then you dismissed it. Congratulations.

I'm not, in fact I was the first one who said you need both types of effectors back in post #1035.


You are countering your own post there. You are literally dismissing the SmartGlider as an effective SEAD/DEAD weapon even in 1035.

Dude, do you even comprehend your own words?

Reality: Rudram, SCALP, and SmartGlider will be used against S-400.

I was the one who said both are necessary to begin with. You were the one who dismissed Rudram/AARGM-like capability and acted like SmartGlider is all you need.

You will have to find that post where I said that.

But the slow option only really comes into play once the IADS is degraded. At that point, even MKI & Tejas Mk2 can penetrate and hit with PGMs like SAAW or Glide bombs.

No need of an expensive new MRFA if that's all it can do, too.

Suffice to say your knowledge about SEAD/DEAD is pretty much the same as your knowledge about the radio spectrum.

Okay, you are a very disingenuous poster. So we can continue this discussion after you have explained the Typhoon EK relative to the Rafale's ESJ. Everything else is meaningless, you have no knowledge about these things at all.
 
Couldn't help but interject...you should read this thread from the linked post onwards, where our friend @randomradio was arguing with me that AWACS were useless and that all of the AWACS' roles will be performed solely by fighters alone...and not even any future fighter but the existing Rafale itself:


Now he's arguing the opposite. You see, there's no point of reference with him. He just likes to argue.

Nope. Already mentioned in post to Screambowl.
The F-35's new radar, not much is known about it yet, it could come very close to AWACS performance, but it's limited by its very small FoV.

And:
Post 493:
I actually spoke about a radar-equipped drone replacing AWACS.
Right now, the USN is working on their own version of NGAD which the E-2D is unlikely to be able to support as an AEW, so even the NGAD will need a radar-equipped drone.

Another point I made:
The current antenna hardware is only suitable against a small number of targets compared to AWACS that can track dozens using high-priority modes.

And I provided the example of the Korean fighter radar that can track 1000 targets in low-priority mode. That's essentially the difference between a fighter radar and a BMD radar. For example, the current F-22 and F-35 radars can only track up to 100 targets in low priority and just 8-12 in high priority. Rafale's PESA could only manage 48 and 8 in high priority. The Korean radar could easily manage 20-40, similar to AWACS.

Funny how my views have been consistent across 3 years whereas you can't make sense of your own posts even from two days ago.

In terms of functionality, fighter radars can come very close to replacing AWACS, but the main drawback is FoV. The F-35's FoV is 120 deg. Rafale's is 150 deg. But both need the support of an external early warning radar that's either carried by drones, for survivability, and now new information tells us radar satellites will do the same.

And Scream argued about the capability being present today, which is not the case with any fighter jet operational today. Hence the example of the upcoming Korean radar.

The difference between you and me is I actually think.
 
Because RBE2-XG will be inducted with all the modes and data bases of the AESA, itself inducted with all the PESA ones.
ie mature from the beginning.
Any brand new radar need time to create, fine tune and validate all the modes, one by one. This is why they mainly arrived on market with only limited air to air modes.

When I pointed out RBE2-XG will be half a generation ahead of Uttam/Virupaksha 'cause of hardware differences, he laughed. So I asked him to provide an explanation. He still hasn't. He just likes making blanket statements without any knowledge to back it up and then attributes his own wrong opinions on others.

We are talking about hardware, not software.
BVR is physics dependent.

All of existence is. ;)

His conclusions are wrong though. He's attributing the characteristics of the F-15C to the F-15EX.
 
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: Shan and redpanda