I mean the main point was it would be a rafale with a different missile loadout and could still be fun even if not meta at all, and yeah i had no clue if those were new built or not.
Political stuff doesn’t prevent it from being added nor missile being outdated to have him as premium squadron or event.
It would also end up as lower br compared to the tech tree f4 rafale as those would get far better missiles.
politics of course have not much impact about missiles
BUT
rocket boosters being too old for the job and risking Rafale to be blown up as soon as being fired from it - YES
Did you even knew that Serbian Airforces still uses :
RVV-AE (izdeliye 190) (variant that is reduced to 80km range) (only x82 missiles in serbia bought in 2020)
R-27ER1 (Izdeliye 470-1E) (100km)
R-73E (which are export variant of the R-73A, with a slightly better Off-bosesight ability [±45° instead of ±40°])
as per contrat for the modernisation of MIG-29SM (which are MiG-29 9.12 basis, being upgraded to MiG-29SD then Mig-29SM – 30+ year old aircrafts which would be nearly 40 in 2029 when Rafale are planned to be percieved)
so,… in my book - no way Serbia having MiG-29 as good as F-16C block 30 will keep old missiles.
even more considering that
MICA-EM is having same range as RVV-AE
MICA-EM NG is gonna have 100km (or so it have been asked to be)
MICA-IR is better than current R-73
Rafale already integrates MICA-IR or EM (so even if France don’t allow the use of Meteor, MICA would be plausible, and this is still in discussion because the choice of the missile can be done within next 5 years)
Rafale F.3.3 is able to use Meteor(200km+ ; Fox-3) which is fairly better than R-27ER1 (100km ; Fox-1)
the 82 RVV-AE in Serbia would reach a 10 year old service before even getting onto Rafale (if ever) making those missile nearly out of lifespan (which is considered to be about 10 years for a Rocket engine such as RVV-AE does have)
then in my book, Rafale F.2 would be enough to use the current weaponnary in Serbia, while Serbia bought Rafale F.4
so,… in all cordiality i can give within this discussion, Serbian Rafale F.4 will not be armed with current weapons of the MiG-29SM.
Even if Dassault were to allow the integration of e.g. RVV-AE onto the Rafale, it would be unlikely if not impossible to success. Iran failed to integrate R-73 and R-27 into the F-14, which was arguably significantly less technologically advanced and NATO-compliant than the Rafale today.
I knew about R-73 but R-27? why do we have those in game as options for F-14A IRIAF then?
Were you not refering to R-77 instead?
EDIT: i found some places saying the same as you, my bad
Project TOFAN
2nd EDIT : seems like F-14AM will be able to fire R-73 in the end - some Iranian ranked personnal said that AWG-9 will get replaced allowing the R-73 to enter service
I hope we get to see this skin, reminds me a lot of the EAP skin also which makes some sense given the aircraft both were around the same time.
The closer we get to perhaps getting this aircraft the more eagerly I await the multitude of bug reports that will ensure the aircraft performs to its maximum in-game. (I am also seriously curious as to the best-estimate of its flight performance using public sources so I particularly look forward to reading those reports).
Although it’s always a nice skin, IMO we already got a taste of that with the 4000…
No, as far as I’m concerned, if there’s one skin, above all else, that I want for the Rafale…
Yeah the 4000 has a very similar paint scheme, but it goes back to the roots of what became two very very good aircraft, I also just like that whole EFA-era of aircraft, the roots of them is all very very interesting (and complicated lol)
Black camo is also of course very nice.
Do not, and I mean seriously, please do not mention the EAP in this thread. I’ve seen what damages saying this name in the RRD thread does, and I don’t want to attract them in this thread !
Its not that deep, most people still on all of that wouldnt even glance at the rafale out of ignorance anyway.
Nice find
Alright thing that has been bothering me:
Dassault claims the Rafale has 14 hardpoints. Alright, 5 of them are fuel tanks and heavy ordnance. Does this mean 5 hardpoints can carry the triple AASM rack? The center pylon can carry weapons, everyone knows that at least, what about the wing root?
And if its 14 Hardpoints, that’s 5 heavy ordnance, so 9 left. 1 for targeting pod
That leaves 8
If the earlier Rafales have 6 AAM, what are the last 2 for?
So to explain allow me to use this :
Ignore the ordnance listed for the hardpoints focus on the numbers :
1 & 14 are used for MICA IR/EM and Magic 2 (Early Rafales)
2 & 13 have been openned for missiles recently for the Rafale F4.1 and is usable since F3R for indian rafales
3 & 12 are mostly used for the AT730 bomb triple racks, big bombs or SCALP
4 & 11 are used only for fuel tanks afaik
6 & 10 are used only for METEOR or MICA
7 & 8 can be regrouped as one pylon as there is never 2 weapons carried on the belly belly is used to carry sometime SCALP or AM39 or reconnaissance pod and most of the time for a fuel tank
5 & 9 are just for pod designation pods
To conclude, the only pylons that are almost never used are pylons 8 & 9. But they are here if they are needed in the future and in any way rarely used pylons(4,7,8,11) might be used by gaijin to hold dumb bombs as it’s technically possible.
The more I read about it, the more I think the French are obsessed with the 3 fuel tank, 2 triple aasm, 4 missile loadout so much that its made proper documentation impossible, because this is so incredibly particular to have 2 fuel-tank-only stations
(aka average french things)
Well it allows for a long range of projection being able to strike far from land or aircraft carrier without the need for refueling is actually a very intersting gimmick.
Also to make realistic charts of complete configurations of armament for the Rafale you’d need the flight manual of the plane and a lot of classified technical data about the internal electronics and the wiring capabilities of each hardpoint.
For example it is highly probable the points 4 and 11 can be used to carry bombs like the points for fuel tanks on Mirage 2000 could be used to hold the 530D or some bombs it’s just that we don’t know the wiring of these pylons.
Oh yeah its functional for IRL stuff, but dammit France, at least fly around max AASM payload for a display or something like everyone else
Showing off has never been part of French military attitude like it is for US or Russia or even China. Keeping some infos secret help because the ennemy you face might underestimate you then and the effect of surprise is a key element in combat.
US keeps a lot of stuff secret lol. the only jets they really show off are 70’s and early 80’s jets.
to this day a lot about the F-117 is unknown, and we know literally nothing about the B-21 other than its apparantly a 6th gen aircraft and its smaller than the B-2
Don’t go mixing visual aspect and technical aspect here we are talking about displaying weapons during shows and expositions and US is widely know to display their aircrafts with shit tons of weapons and configs even loads that are used like 1% of the time.
It’s like the Mirage 2000 and even the previous Mirage 3/5. The wing fuel tanks allow the plane to gain significant range. You need to consider the rather large territory of France when you add all those overseas territories. The different armies want to have operational ranges allowing them to cross oceans with minimal logistical strain, that is with limiting the number of air refuelling required. Those 2 underwing subsonic fuel tanks allow for such capabilities and are basically mandatory for any expeditionary intervention, which is what France has been doing in the past decades. If they were to operate inside of the European borders (let’s say Ukraine or Russia, for some reason), they could free up those hard points for other type of weaponry, and that’s exactly why we have seen the newer standard evolve in this way with the Rafale hard points being opened for pretty much every possible armement (AAM, AGM…)
