in the photo of the article(which date to 2014) you can see a rafale F3R carrying 2 meteor 2 MICA EM and 2 MICA IR so as well as 6 AASM a configuration that proves that French F3 rafales at one point even if it is only for testing are capable of carrying AAM on 8 different pylons
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Are you talking about this picture ?
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
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genuine question, how do you identify C101 without looking at the weapons?
I was talking about this one but it may be the same I can’t differenciate them
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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.
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i will remember that
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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.
ok good to know
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).
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im not too versed in the entire electronic suite, what is the OFS?
Optronique de Secteur Frontale or something like that (excuse my lack of accents an/or spelling but i’m on laptop)
Its the IRST system on the nose composing of the LRF and a viewer behind a glass shield.
Do you know if there’s a report in for the Range on the OFS?
Currently both it and PIRATE are very dissapointing in range and utility.
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?
Can they not just assume best possible conditions and extrapolate?
So supersonic, rear aspect, hot engines and high alt, perfect weather?
Should still be better than currently cos frankly, they suck right now?
Oh and can it launch MICA’s in-game also?
No MICA EM launched with IRST sadly
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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.
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