Dassault Rafale - Variants, Characteristics, Armament and Performance

rafale is a pretty impressive jet. wasn’t really the first to anything, but great overall multirole

APX-111 development was initiated in 1993, F-18’s in the US did not start receiving them until 1997 and 500 were upgraded with it by 2003. I’ll reiterate that the French Rafale had a better system as early as 1986.

It does have a very comprehensive sensor fusion system. I just haven’t got around to reporting it yet. And it seems no one else can be bothered to do so.

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No it doesn’t

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1988, but yes, they did have a better IFF system. The APX-100 may have some ESA capability since the Forecast International report on it mentions solid state electronics, which E-scan has, but could be referring to other parts of it.

There is also the possibility that the Rafale’s started out conventional and got upgraded to an E-scan antenna later down the line

James is a terrible source

This is forecast international, not janes. The report was sponsored by BAE themselves

Forecast international is Janes

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They are 2 separate companies. Janes is in London, Forecast international is headquartered in Connecticut.

Likewise, both sources are invalid for bug reports because of how notoriously unreliable they are.

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bug reports maybe, but seeing as the reports are sponsored by the manufacturer, and are about the market history/future of a product, i dont see any reason why the timeline would be inaccurate.

even for the technical data, it just looks like the Forecast international one is using information on an older variant of the APX-111 than the BAE pdf on it.

AMRAAM program dates are wrong on official websites, I don’t see BAE being that much better about it. Development in-house may have began in 1988 or perhaps it pivoted towards that goal in '93 but the truth is that nothing was truly equipped with them until 1997 when the F-18’s started being retrofit. These were the first, and that is already 11 years after the Rafale A flew with the same capabilities.

it was selected in 1990 for the Kuwait F-18, 1991 for NATO F-16’s which is 4 years off the rafale.

again, are you sure they didnt upgrade the IFF on the rafale for the production versions to have E-scan?

Selected, not introduced. I already stated retrofits for the American F-18’s came first and that was in 1997 that it kicked off.

No upgrade has ever been noted or seen for that particular component and the exterior details remain the exact same for Rafale A, Rafale C, Rafale M.

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that is true.

for rafale, this is pretty interesting. seeing as we have a 2019 rafale ingame though, and more and more 2000’s stuff for everyone else, i think US and NATO aircraft will be getting more IFF equipment that can do the same thing as the rafale’s ingame.

Tbf in game the only reason we got a 2019 rafale and not an older airframe, even something like a early 2000s rafale is solely based on the ground ordinance, 2 extra missiles (which weren’t originally planed) and IFF HMD (with IFF already existing prior that but only on the MFDs), and radar (but they’d probably model the PESA the same as the AESA currently so…). There are no major electronic and systems differences in game that would change between an F2 and our F3R as far as I know
If we had MICA IR, it would be a later model, mid 2000s I believe, but still.

Not necessarily the case, I think a big reason we got the F3-R was solely just to give it HMS, which wasn’t officially added until the F4.1, but has the potential of being back fitted on the F3-R if a customer wanted, and Gaijin has proven many times now they aren’t afraid of adding something if it’s potentially possible.

We could’ve easily gotten an earlier F3 instead from ~2008 which would’ve still had the same ground ordinance and the same air-air loadout. The major difference would be the lack of HMS and the radar would be the PESA(Unless we got the 2013 F3 that saw the introduction of the AESA) and also the lack of Meteor missiles(for when they’d be added in-game).

The most major difference functionally in-game for the F2 compared to an early F3 on the other hand would be the lack of laser-guided ordinance due to the Damocles not being put into service until the F3 entered in 2008, you’d still have the GPS and IR AASMs however.

Either way, it’s a 2019 Rafale which means how new a system is is no reason to withold the HMD IFF from US aircraft

Well technically Rafale F2 could carry laser guided weapon too but it couldn’t designate the target by himself.

Besides the F2 Standard was kinda a preproduction as it was replace 3 or 4 years after its introduction while the F3 ,and its sub standards, has existed for more than a decade

Buddy lasing isn’t in the game yet which is why I said in-game it wouldn’t have such weaponry.

But if we really want to go there then Gaijin could just give a F2 the ATLIS II pod that was test fitted alongside the AS-30L before both were retired from service. Both never saw operational service on the aircraft but were mounted in at least a testing role similar to the Magic II.