Dassault Rafale - Variants, Characteristics, Armament and Performance - Part 2

First integrate GaN on an existing architecture

Then develop a new architecture, based on the RoE, but also because it needs an update

Small incremental steps, agility 101 really

French is quite literally my native language, and I’m not one to lie about stuff lmao.

Glad to know AI and other French speakers support it though.

Figured the change from GaAs to GaN modules is not quite something you can just 1 for 1 replace, which at the end of the day would mean the radar would require new architecture regardless.

I’m curious to see if the XG will have a repositionner, or if the Rafale F5 will have multiple radar arrays like the Russians have chosen to go with. Could also do both I suppose, thats not somethings thats been done yet afaik?

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What would the point be though. It’s so much sacrificed for so little gain compared to doing one or the other

The smaller distributed arrays are significantly more limited than the primary radar, and atleast in the russian case, somewhat niche in function and coverage to my understanding.

Ah, that’s actually interesting, I never knew. I always defer to French speakers on their interpretation of French text.

Why have both then? Wouldn’t it make more sense to put all your space and power into a moving AESA instead?

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Indeed, but it’s probably less stealthy to have 1 big aesa array on a gimbal than many side arrays. But having that esa on a gimbal is what gives you such massive main radars that while only gimbaling to 100 degrees, are just so much more powerful than any of the main radars of the other aesa equipped air craft. For exampl, the side arrays for the su-57 are more than 3x smaller than the main radar. Also I think f-22 was supposed to once also have side arrays like su-57 but that fell out probably due to budget costs.

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Tbf SLAR does have the advantage of not having any blind spots since it doesn’t have to turn, and having 2 or more extra arrays available to do whatever is needed could have major advantages in defense jamming. But it’s just so expensive, even though it does have less moving parts which could be a long-term advantage since AESA gracefully degrades and can be pretty cheap to mass produce replacement T/R modules compared to a mechanical system.

A primary FCR with a repositionner would allow the jet to have access to its primary radar more often than adversaries without one, while the additional side/rear looking arrays would still cover areas the primary radar cannot and allow some increased situational awareness and/or EW capabilities.

That being said, I think most nations are increasingly relying on using their radar(s) as little as possible nowadays, with statements regarding patrol flights of Gripens only having a single aircraft turn on their radars occasionally, and using other passive sensors for the majority of their information gathering, which might actually explain why we havent really seen any NATO jets adopt multi-array systems despite some being designed to be able to do so, like the APG-77. It might just be a liability at this point in air combat. As for a theoretical advantage of a repositionner for a radar beyond just coverage, angling the radar antenna is one thing used to minimize RCS, which is why all stealth aircrafts have angled arrays. With a system like the swashplate repositionner on the ECRS, you can theoretically keep the radar antenna pointed in a way to maximally reduce RCS for a specific target. Take this all with a grain of salt though obviously.

I’d argue quite a few aircrafts already have dedicated EW emitters across the aircraft, so I’m not sure how much of an impact tacking on more arrays would have. Could be a diminishing returns situation.

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There’s a good chance the SLAR are more powerful and capable than the dedicated EW emitters which are spread around. SLAR could also be used on new airframes to eliminate the need for as many dedicated EW emitters

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My point was more that that aspect is already a thing being done to some degree, rather than to say dedicated EW systems are superior to SLAR, that was why I added that it could be a case of diminishing returns.

Its why im curious to see what the RBE2-XG will choose to go with at the end of the day.

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While the Russian radars are less powerful than one dongle gimbal radar, ultimately I think this will be the way to go in new designs, since it allows for a continuous coverage of both sides.
It also looks to be what the US is going with with their f47, as the nose looks to be specially design for such twin radar design.
Plus, looks like this also allows for a stealthier radar placement compared to a rotating AESA. As of now those rotating AESA have all been found in gen 4 aircraft which probably donc have a nose wide enough for this kind of layout, but have the room for rotating radars since they originally carried mechanical radars. The rafale on the other hand has never used mechanical radars, so I actually doubt it can use a rotating radar, and it’s also probably too small for twin radar. I would be surprised the f5 standard brings enough advanced for such an addition so I don’t think we will see either technology

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Rafale missing indication of targets trajectory on hud, and display of hostile tracked targets on hmd?
https://x.com/lfx160219/status/1888973718996615492

I have no idea why you keep going into this direction, there was a bug report after a crash of a rafale with clear data of the weight, and someone tried to recalculate, but ended up at the same weight that the develloper added in game…

Because all primary sources state 10 tonnes. 550kg heavier than current weight

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It was a primary source that stated this new weight too…
And Rafale wouldn’t be able to reach mach 2 (i think that was ?) if you just follow that logic too, Dassault has no reason to give precise data to the public about their aircraft anyway.

That’s funny how selective they are lol. Manufacturer data saying 10 ton class ? It must mean it’s exactly 10 tons. Doesn’t specify which variant ? Doesn’t care.
A source with exact weight values for the specific variant in game ? Doesn’t care

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I can tell Morvran doesn’t talk extensively to Flame and Gunjob in private so he could be a bit more educated otherwise I doubt he would make half of the comments usually does. I wish he would though.

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A 10 ton class (which could be anything between 9001 kg to 10999 kg) spread across 3 different airframes, of which two are around 1 ton heavier than the C - stop make things up, just to start a discussion Mods have warned about many times.

Also; nerfing one plane doesn’t make the other better in itself.

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@Morvran made a well done (/s) report on the Rafale’s empty weight.

https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/WvC1XyzOWgn6