Any Rafales could have been upgraded to M88-3 if the customers choose to do so, although changes to the airframe would be required.
Spoiler
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A rafale with even more thrust while barely gaining any extra weight… would be cool to see eventually after all nations get their equivalents. Although, was it ever actually installed in a rafale/tested?
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If it was tested, it would have been on a Dassault/MoD (DGA) testbed rather than any in-service aircrafts. No export customers ever adopted this engine, although it seems this engine will seem to be making its comeback in the form of a T-rex engine which will maintain the same dimensions as the current M88-2 but still offer 20% greater increase in thrust like the M88-3 does, and this will be done on the Rafale F5.
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M88-3 or M88-9 would have been 9tons thrust earlier than Rafale F.5, if there were clients for it.
Safran already said in 2016 that a 9T thrust M88 is easily feasible for Rafale.
so,… the problem came from the investement money.
but yeah, M88 for Rafale F5 (and others, that would be retrofitted), is going to mark a step up in Rafale possibilites (heavier payload, better acceleration, and improved sustained turn rates)
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It also seems those engines require more modifications than something of the same dimensions like T-Rex.
Interestingly there’s possibilities for weight-reduction of Rafale F5 since it is going to get fiber-optic cabling throughout the aircraft which will also increase data processing. I can’t find the exact quote right now but a French official stated fiber optic cabling for the F5 will offer weight savings.
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New Rafale skin from @SpectreXXI on the marketplace for you guys to collect! Congrats to Spectre.
Here’s the skin, can’t wait to get it!
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it seems that it was even thought in 1995, with similar dimensions.
T-REX M88 seems to be the final concrete application after 30 years of studies.
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THAT: may end up, with some people crying even more.
Normal Armoured cables
For example:
- CXV 3x10mm² cable (unarmoured): approximately 440 kg/km
- CXV/SWA 3x10mm² cable (with steel wire armour): approximately 912 kg/km
Detailed reference table for electrical cable weight
Armoured fiber optics:
- Armored Fiber Optic Cables: These cables, which include metal armoring for enhanced protection against physical damage, can weigh significantly more, often exceeding 200 kg per kilometer (132 pounds per 1000 feet).
How much does fiber optic cable weight?).
(quick search, nothing relevant to rafale, just wanted to get an idea of what could be the mass)
that will be massive change, depending on the lenght of cable there is on-board Rafale.
I doubt later variants of rafale would be lighter. Unless you’re Chinese, most of the time later variants of the same air craft will be heavier even if more composites or similar weight reducing savings are used due to usually being reinforced for more weapon capability
Yes, most likely it will be heavier if anything although offset by that 20% increase in thrust. Even Chinese aircraft get heavier too, J-10C weighs heavier than J-10A for instance.
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Yeah j10c gained 1.5 tons, was more thinking of their flanker family which has greatly reduced weight compared to their original Russian counterparts
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do you happen to know how long km of cable there is on-board rafale?
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No I don’t currently.
25km from few articles it looks like.
well then let’s go with 15% total mass (fair approx.)
that’s about 1.4 tons of mass, and Fiber optics gives about 2/3 times less weight than normal cable. Let’s go with 2.5.
tha’s 0.56 tons of new mass for Fiber optics
and a gain of 0.84tons
(that is only an Approximation)
i’ve only seen a 40km from a forum guy,… but it seemed overestimated.
Sincerely doubt civilian fibre optic cable weight = military grade fibre optic cable weight
i agree on that. that’s why i took only 2.5, not the 4+ times we can get from:
Hey hey, thanks!
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