DOES RAFALE HAVE STEALTH FEATURES AND CAPABILITIES?

Rafale Cockpit

The Dassault Rafale literally meaning "gust of wind" and "burst of fire" in a more military sense) is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. Equipped with a wide range of weapons, the Rafale is intended to perform air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions. The Rafale is referred to as an "omnirole" aircraft by Dassault. India and Greece have ordered Rafale to counter Chinese and Turkish S400 Triumf SAM systems. Greece expressed interest to purchase 18 Rafale F3R fighter jets at a price of 2 billion Euros especially to counter Turkey's S400 Triumf, which Turkey has recently brought from Russia rejecting US F35 Lightening II.

Rafale Top Speed

Rafale is operationally limited to Mach 1.8 (although it reached mach 2+ during qualification tests15) and 55,000 feet which is as good or more than most considered types. Its stunning agility demonstrated during air shows is due to its engines power and its ability to sustain 9g turns, and regularly hit more than 10g during display flights. Furthermore, a Rafale, fully loaded with 6,000 liters of external fuel in three tanks, four air-to-air mica missiles and two SCALPs (1,300 kg heavy cruise missile) is able to maintain 5.5/6g sustained turn rate.

Rafale F4 Stealth 

Addressing the growing domestic and international demand for the French fighter aircraft, Dassault and the French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) will soon begin a six-year development phase of the next-generation Rafale F4. The French Minister of Defense, Mr. Jean-Yves Le Drian, authorized the start of development of the next generation variant of the Rafale. The aircraft will introduce new capacities empowered by the modern missile and engine technologies.

The new variant will follow the Rafale F3-R currently in development and scheduled to complete the qualification testing next year. Dassault now produces Rafales to fulfill French orders for 180 aircraft, along with sales of around 100+ more aircraft for Egypt, India, Greece etc. The French Air Force could order additional 45 as it phases out older Mirage 2000 aircraft. The first fully equipped F4 aircraft are expected to enter service in 2025, though certain functions will be available in 2023. It will be part of the fifth production tranche (2019-2025), delivering on French and export orders.

Rafale F4 will have better stealth capabilities and weapon integration modifications to include new variants of air/air Mica, Scalp and the nuclear cruise missile ASMP-A (currently deployed exclusively on Mirage 2000N). Further, into the future, the program could introduce significant airframe changes, as part of the Rafale’s mid-life modifications. These upgrades could include cockpit redesign or introduction of low-observability modifications to better position this 4.5 generation fighter against modern and future fighters.
 

Is rafale a stealth fighter aircraft?

In the early’80 s, the DGA (French procurement agency) and Armée de l’Air started studied the self protection system of the future combat aircraft.

Future threat analysis as well as cost considerations (acquisition and maintenance) led to a compromise between high kinematic abilities and the different parries to theses threats.

Preventive avoidance led to full spectrum signature reduction features, automatic very low altitude and very high-speed terrain following ground system and adaptation of pathways using a sophisticated mission preparation system.

In-flight detection of threats and adapted course change, allowing real time adaptation of preventive avoidance.

Avoidance by neutralization – jamming, decoying and ultimately destroying threats.

Whole Spectrum Signature reduction measures are obtained by several means, mostly classified, some documented. In the IR spectrum for example (heat detection), there is a supplementary cool air channel around the engine exhaust. In the radar spectrum, extensive use of composites (1/3rd of the plane mass, 70% of the wet surface (that is roughly to the same extent as the future Pak-Fa Russian fighter), and RAM coatings, presence of serrated “saw-tooth” patterns on canards and wing trailing edges, as well as inside air intakes. Instead of deflecting incoming radar waves to an angle away from the emitter, they are channeled towards “spike” points heavily treated against reflection. Dassault engineers do not claim their plane to be “stealthy”, but very discreet or “sneaky.” All in all, the Rafale has a radar cross section reduction by 20 times compared to the Mirage 2000.
 

Rafale Spectra Suite System for Stealth

Avoidance of known threats is obtained either by mission planning (and the data will appear on the tactical display) or in real time, via Link 16 or detection by any of the plane sensors. In the latter cases, SPECTRA is able to propose actions vs. emerging threat, be it bypassing via recommending a new route to the pilot in order to avoid lethal areas (sophisticated enough to take into account the characteristics of the threat and topography), jamming, decoying or destroying the threat.

Here lies the origin of the SPECTRA concept, which most modern EW suites are only now emulating. Far from being a simple “situation Awareness” suite, SPECTRA is capable of offensive actions. It has 3 AESA highly directional jamming antennas allowing deception jamming. The possible types of jamming involved have been extensively discussed on the net and are highly classified. We know it uses a DRFM (Digital Radio Frequency Memory) chain and “intelligent” jamming instead of “brutal jamming”. False range targets, velocity gate pull-off, and narrow band Doppler noise created by using digital RF memory (DRFM) are the common coherent EA techniques which can be used effectively against LPI radars. Simply put, it is able to feed enemy radar with wrong data about presence, location and number of planes. It acts as an illusionist instead of using noisy, blinding “projectors” (“broadband white noise jammers”). Furthermore, depending on conditions, SPECTRA is able to detect and localize potential threats accurately enough to allow a shooting without using active (detectable) sensors. Some interesting results nevertheless leaked to specialized press, here are some:
· While flying over Libyan air defenses (before the Libyan air defense system was suppressed by tomahawk salvo), Rafales planes “poofed” from enemy radars.
· During NATO Mace XIII exercise in Slovakia, a Rafale B flew unmolested over a S300 radar (and was the only type engaged in the exercise able to do it).
· During Joint warrior 2013-1 exercise, rumours say SPECTRA literally gave headaches to Eurofighter’s Captor M radar, preventing it from tracking visible and detectable Rafales.
· During his test flights in 2012, DefesaNet test pilot Vianney Riller Jr. could shoot, entirely relying on aircraft passive sensors, a plane attacking him in his 6 o’clock position from way over 10 NM. At the moment, as far as I know, Rafale is the only operational plane able to perform such a shot.
· In a 2011 technical presentation brochure at Le Bourget, “virtual stealth technology” is stated.

SPECTRA is completely integrated to the airplane (and will react differently according to the plane configuration). This is a very important feature as the suite wasn’t added to the plane like a jamming pod would, but was designed for the plane as a coherent system (with exact radar behaviors, IR signatures and loads in mind).

This advanced, integrated EW capability is another area where the Americans are actually playing catch-up. The Rafale is the only aircraft delivering this advanced combat capability on the market today. The Boeing EA-18G Growler, the electronic warfare variant of the F-18 Super Hornet, will only be getting this capability in a next generation external jamming pod from Raytheon on 2020. In order to have the air-to-air, air-to-ground AND EW capabilities at once, you need to fly both the SuperHornet and Growlers – two jets compared to one Rafale. In conclusion, instead of relying completely on a stealthy shape, Rafale relies on a smart avoidance system and highly sophisticated sensor suite, real time mission planning and top end AESA jammers. It is noticeable that in 2014, a Rafale demonstrator will fly with gallium-nitride (GaN) made SPECTRA antennas, a world first, demonstration the involvement of French state in constantly upgrading the aircraft. Again, this will be six years ahead of the Growler getting that capability and only promised on the F-35.

FAQ

How many Rafale does China have?
None. China at present only has J20, J15, J10 etc which are mostly copies of Russian and American planes like Su27 and F16 etc.

Which is better F16 block 70/72 vs Rafale F3R?
Rafale is better than F16 block 70/72 because Rafale is 4.5 generation jet and F16 block 70/72 is a 4th generation plane (according to its makers Lockheed Martin). Rafale integrated intelligent jammer system is way ahead of F16 block 70/72 tech. The F16 block 70/72 AESA radar AN/APG-83 has a detection range of 65 nautical miles (120 km) and an engagement range of 84 km. It can simultaneously track more than 20 targets. Whereas Dassault’s CEO, Eric Trappier stated Rafale's RBE2 AA radar detection range is more than 200 Km. It is able to track 40 planes or other targets and engage eight of them simultaneously within a 140° angular domain. Rafale uses Meteor BVR which is better than F16 block 70/72 AIM120 C/D missiles. So Rafale has a powerful AESA radar and BVR capabilities against F16 block 70/72 jets.

What is the range of AN/APG-83 AESA radar?
The AN/APG-83 (SABR) AESA radar has a detection range of 65 nautical miles (120 km) and an engagement range of 84 km. It can simultaneously track more than 20 targets.

What is Rafale aircraft specifications?
For exclusive report on Rafale aircraft specifications.