Because if this is the case, you should know that it is not a Rafale C F3R but the C101, it is a test aircraft belonging to Dassault and the DGA used since the beginning of the 2010s to carry out weapons and configuration tests, this aircraft is also known to be modular so that it can be tested in different configurations.
Tests were done with this aircraft in order to make a study for the addition of additional Mica loads, this addition was not retained by the French army for their production version of the Raface C F3R but was chosen for the version purchased by India
The simplest thing to do is to look at the date: the information given at the bottom of the image by the Ministry of the Armed Forces announces that the F3R modification will take place from 2019, but this image was taken at the beginning of the 2010s, so it cannot be an F3R but a test aircraft.
This image is definitely the C101, it was taken during an air show in Paris during which the full capabilities of the Rafale of the time were demonstrated by Dassault using this aircraft.
No problem, in fact we must tell ourselves that all the images showing a Rafale with French roundels with more than 6 missiles taken before 2019 are either demonstration aircraft modified on the ground to have an additional missile or images of the C101 and can’t be a F3R
Missing markings, missing OFS (not all the time), particially missing SPECTRA parts and “nose” tupe (and ofc C Airframe). Also worth mention that it was used for customer specific variants testbed; i.e. it tested features of Qatari Rafale EQ for example, means it has the SOP spec (Standard of Preparation).
I made one that was rejected, unfortunately no declassified source gives a reliable or proven value, the only information that we find would be a detection distance of 100km but no information on the conditions or the type of target
ok i was gonna take a guess and say it was that. so do airframes that lack it just cover the area its supposed to be in with a mockup in the shape of it?
It would be much better than what we currently have (from what I have seen the detection sector is correct, however we only detect targets at about 15 to 17 km maximum).
When I put forward the idea that these values could be applied, as you said, to ideal conditions, I was told that I needed a reliable source
The Mica EM requires a radar lock to be fired, which the IRsT does not provide, on the other hand the Magic announced in the dev blog can be fired with it
I have a second bug report in progress for the OFS so that the thermal camera integrated into the block is linked to the IRST (as it really is) in order to lock on the detected aircraft for visual identification.
In case of missing budget (as in case of early F.3 era) or airshows etc, the FSO is replaced with a realistic looking mock-up. In case of the C101 and the SP3 pylon test, the FSO was removed entirely. The very early Rafale standard (M LF.1) also lacked FSO entirely, but was refitted to F.1 later.
