Question, do you think the M88-2 is missing some power ?
To be honest, I don’t know the engine characteristics of the Rafale very well.
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if it’s really a F-3R then it shouldn’t have any IR detector, only a (improved) TV one.
The IR channel was removed somewhere along the F3 standard and only reappeared on the F4 serie, using the upgraded IR channel specifically developed for the indian Rafales.
From what I understand from @WreckingAres283 's work, IRST was removed on the first versions of F3 then reinstalled from F3.1 (latest versions) and F3.2
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That’s the OSF as a whole. The IR part was completely removed. You can easily check that by looking at the ball part of the IRST of in service Rafales. All late F3 will have an opaque grey placeholder
It doesn’t seem to be the case, it’s missing a few hundreds kgf compared to the advertised value, which corresponds to the installed losses.
They won’t. All Fox3 seekers are nerfed for the sake of gameplay.
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On the majority of F3R images the OFS and IRST are hidden by the opaque cover, I do not know if it is a protective cover in flight when the sensor is not used in order to protect the 'optical.
Planes without any cache (normally they are F3R)
It’s not a cover it’s a place holder. The OSF is plug and play and there are less OSF than there are planes (and sometimes the OSF is in maintenance) so they replace it with a placeholder
Example of such placeholder after a bird strike :
Also your F-3R have the old generation DDM, so I think they’re earlier standards
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Found lots of claimed F3R with not-grey things. Found just as many with grey-things. Not 100% sure if were F3Rs, but I am also not sure their claim is accurate based on finding 50/50.
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Do you have a source for IRST withdrawal? Because personally I had never heard of it.
If the IRST was ever removed from the F3R I would not oppose its removal from the game
Would hope it’s a better source than “they’ve all a grey placeholder”. Given we kinda just put a hole in that one with all of 5 minutes of searching.
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Well it’s not a secret, a lot of ppl involved have talked about it
"En mars 2023, le standard F4.1 a été qualifié par la DGA. Il englobe ainsi toute une série de nouvelles fonctionnalités et de nouveaux équipements :
Dans l’OSF, un nouvel IRST venant compléter la suite de capteurs du Rafale, en apportant une capacité de détection passive jour/nuit, et contribuant à améliorer la détection des avions à faible signature électromagnétique au travers du spectre infrarouge."
“Sur le plan des capteurs, la grande « nouveauté » devrait porter sur le retour d’une voie IR à bord de l’OSF, une capacité abandonnée il y a quelques années, mais qui a été réclamée notamment par l’armée de l’air indienne.”
"En 2013, le standard F3-04T du Rafale voit la suppression de la voie IR de l’OSF au profit d’un capteur TV plus performant: l’OSF- IT (Improve Technologie). Il est opérationnel fin 2012 et dispose d’une capacité de détection à plus longue distance.
Le standard F4 dispose d’un nouvel IRST (Infra Red Search and Track). II optimise la détection et la poursuite de pistes air-air, seul ou en complément du radar."
“L’OSF (Optronique Secteur Frontal) est un moyen passif de reconnaissance, détection et poursuite des cibles. Il fonctionne par voie TV et infrarouge. La voie TV permet d’identifier des cibles jusqu’à 50 km. La voie IR, d’une portée de 100 km, est supprimée en 2013 avec l’OSF-IT (Improved Technology) et remplacée par un capteur TV plus performant. Cette voie IR est partiellement remplacée par le FLIR du Damoclès (non supersonique), le capteur d’un MICA IR (IRST sans imagerie) et le peut-être le DDM-NG (IRST sans imagerie). Cette absence de voie IR gène, mais pourrait être facilement réinstallée. La liaison 16 lui permet bien entendu de communiquer discrètement avec d’autres appareils.”
It’s also mentioned in several interviews online here and there
If you know any, you can also ask any Rafale mechanics. They know about it and it’s not classified so they’ll tell you
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All Rafales F-3R equiped with a functioning OSF will look like that : the square sensor (TV) is visible but the ball (IR) is grey’d out
And it’s not just retracted for protection, you can see how a functioning IR sensor looks when retracted and it’s different
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Do we know which OSF the F3R have, because if it’s the OSF-IT from the F3-4OT the Ir channel was removed for a better TV one
There is also this where they talk about a comeback of the IRST for the F4
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My French is incredibly poor compared to what it was, so I may have got this wrong stumbling through it, but these excerpts don’t seem dispositive of compatibility with the system? It’s entirely possible I’m missing something with my shoddy reading skills though.
Just to be clear, it’s not been reviewed with an outcome yet, they could still say its marketting, or they don’t see how its possible or reject it.
I have however been able to find some atmospheric conditions linked to the PIRATE IRST and its capabilities that I will use in the report to hopefully boost its chances, but these come from a SELEX Gallileo report (the manufacturer) on its testing trials, is there anything similar available for OSF?
I can take a look if you want, but I don’t speak French so I’m sure you can find something better.
Has anyone made a report about Rafale’s arrest hook not working ?
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Sorry for the delay in my response
You are right, I spoke with Rafale gunsmiths who confirmed your information.
In fact I had misinterpreted the information in the articles, for me the removal of the OFS IR channel meant the removal of the thermal capacity of the camera and not the removal of the IRST, hence my confusion.
However I suppose that Gaijin is deliberately vague about the name of the aircraft in order to give it some capabilities of previous versions, including the IRST
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