Interestingly RBE2-XG on the future Rafale F5 should enjoy greater increased ranges, making 300km detection a regular occurrence to have better detection against stealth targets.
Range velocity: 380km
HPRF: 305km
LPRF: 305km
MPRF: 190km
These ranges are given for a target with an RCS of 5.
Can’t wait to see how both radars will be next update
Hopefully the TWS will be more like real life
the magic of GaN
I probably understand more the rcs part than the differents radar modes (?), but isn’t this low for having the task of detecting clean stealth aircrafts since as far as i know that was one of the goal ? For sure it must be ok for detecting drones and irl a plane is also supposed to either works alongside others if his radar is not the best or an awacs in best case but wouldn’t the rafale detect his opponent way too late ?
That depends really on the RCS value of the stealth aircraft and multitude of other things. Maybe once 5th gen fighters get added to the game and developers implement all of the Rafale’s features we’ll have a better idea when things are simulated.
Just an interesting fact, the amount of electronics in the Rafale just for SPECTRA alone is greater than the electronics required for the RBE2 radar! The SPECTRA system is the brain of the Rafale collecting all the data from all the sensors and doing tasks for the pilot, but for now we don’t have any of the functionalities that comes with the SPECTRA system.
I read somewhere that the SPECTRA system is so good at its job that Rafales usually don’t even need SEAD aircraft to come with them in missions
That is true! SPECTRA can jam and attack air defense systems. It has even happened in Libya when the SPECTRA system directed AASM-Hammers to the location of air defense systems.
amazing, Rafale is the ultimate multirole XD +1 to the list of things it can do
a growler with 3 NGJ pods will outperform it in jamming though, just saying
of course, the point of multirole aircraft is not to be the topper in everything but to do everything decently. The Rafale is decent at air-air, decent at air-ground, decent at sead, decent at nuclear deterrence, decent as a tanker… What makes it awesome is one aircraft can do any of these
But obviously specialized aircrafts do their job better, that’s their whole point
The NGJ pods is an interesting read, seems to be finally catching up to what the Rafale has been capable of. Keep in mind that the Rafale has AESA antenna jammers that protect it in a completely spherical coverage while some sources suggest that not even the F-35 is capable of such.
Source: Navair
Thanks to AESA jammers coming with NGJ pods, the Growler is capable of providing protection in a 360 azimuth but I don’t believe it is full spherical like the Rafale’s, so I wouldn’t claim just yet that it is greater in capabilities.
Here you can see that the Rafale is capable of jamming in a 360 degree basis, so both ingress and egress.
The more I learn about this plane the more I like it
Obviously, dedicated jamming aircraft will use far more powerful jammers. I believe a growler at full power can emit up to 10KW. They are made to protect other aircrafts as well, such as other fighters or bombers in a formation. The F35 also apparently has pretty powerful jammers, in the order of 1000W, more powerful than the Rafale (in the order of 100W), then again, because they need to be able to jam for other aircrafts. The numbers I give are what I have seen in other discussions about EW, and I have no sources for them. I however believe they are a pretty fair representation of jammers emissions power
France on the other hand, going 100% rafale in the future, maybe with a few Mirage 2000 in uncontested areas, does not have that need for jamming multiple aircrafts at the same time. Thus, the SPECTRA is designed to only cover the aircraft it’s installed on, but with the emphasis being made to give the largest coverage possible, that is spherical, which only the f35 currently could claim to be able to do so for other fighter jets. (At least I thought it did until @DirectSupport last comment)
CATOBAR aircraft carrier takeoff capabilities on the Rafale M would be amazing and fun, if we had any aircraft carriers at top tier.
did you know the Rafale has a stall speed so low that it can take off with just a ski jump, it doesn’t need a catapult?
I did not. All ik was that it’s certified for use on US carriers which is pretty sick.
In game ?
IRL it probably can as well, just not with a full loadout. The goal of a catapult assisted launch is to get in the air a fully loaded and fuelled airplane that can strike at its max range. There’s a reason why the F35B has an even worse range than even the more normal f35s.
Irl, idk in game
yeah ofc payload is limiting especially for a plane like the Rafale which can take up to 1.5 its own weight
Yeah actually they used american facilities to develop the Rafale M, and it did later land on us carriers occasionally. Pretty sick I agree
