US had AESA in 90’s , we have had far more time to refine and develop stuff like processing and more than enoguh money to do so, and demand for it from the military
@dedale_stargate i mean more refined signal processing capabilities from decades of R&D and operational use
Its obviously time for Dassault to bring new aesa panel with more modules and preferably rotating so it can tilt to the sides to stay relevant into the future.
This would need larger dome but now, its radar will be more and more obsolete.
But back then, you couldnt get anything better on the market. US stuff was on 5th gen or not for export.
France would sell you AESA rafale without blink of an eye.
I guess its not that bad, considering users of AESA Typhoons are getting Rafales now.
I’m pretty sure the japanese were the first one to use it in a “widespread” manner, with different families (f2, some destroyers and what not). This was one of their main reasons to be quite unhappy with the AESA rafale addition before the F-2 (rightfully so, i might add)
USA started using AESA on its fighter in 1999 afaik
Keep in mind that the RBE2 AESA was upgraded over the years and more radar modes were added, capabilities expanded and even the range of the radar increased over the years. So it’s not that the radar was delivered and that was that.
While the RBE2 AESA has a limited number of T/R modules compared to other radars and does not have the raw performance of newer AESA radars, it was on the flipside a more mature product with more “refined features” as you put it.
Rafale’s STR is inaccurate, so as that’s fixed its supercruise speed will increase as all Gaijin can really do as the primary fix to increase STR is to reduce drag numbers, which will increase supercruise speed.
Similarly to how Typhoon went up in STR after getting supercruise fixed.
Cause we know the engines are correct, and ITR is correct, and STR and supercruise are incorrect.
@MiG_23M
Oswald and LD are drag related.
Thrust is already correct for M88.
Either way as Rafale’s STR is fixed and/or its supercruise, both will go up.
I expect Rafale’s supercruise to at least match Super Etendard at the end of the day.
Have you actually read what i wrote??? From 2021 onwards… Dassault sold more units than F35s… Once US ran out of european market, they cant really sell anything else en-masse.