12:41 GMT, July 7, 2009 The first production Rafale F3 combat aircraft, in French navy markings, on the tarmac at Mont-de-Marsan air base. (French navy photo)
The latest Rafale Marine, with its new equipment and capabilities, has just left Dassault Aviation’s production line in Mérignac, near Bordeaux.
At 4:30 p.m. on July 2 a naval Rafale Marine combat aircraft carrying the number 27 on its airframe landed at Mont-de-Marsan air base, in south-western France, at the conclusion of a ferry flight from Mérignac, where it was built.
Although identical in appearance to the previous version, the Rafale M12, the new aircraft is the first to have been built to the F3 production standard, the most advanced on contract for the French armed forces.
It is fitted with the latest digital systems which replace older, analogue equipment such as the video recorder. But the main difference is that the F3 version will be able to carry advanced sensors now being developed, such as the Advanced Electronically-Scanned Antenna radar which will allow improved target detection at longer ranges. It also will be fitted with the nose-mounted electro-optical thermal imaging camera which will allow passive target identification at long ranges.
With the F3 standard, the Rafale will attain its full maturity. The new version has the same basic operational capabilities as the aircraft numbered M11 to M26, which were delivered to the navy between 2006 and 2008, and which are now undergoing an upgraded at Istres air base (for the first six) and at Landivisiau naval air base for the others.
The latest aircraft, M27, is the first of 12 aircraft which will be delivered to the navy between 2009 and 2014. It has now been handed over to the détachement centre d’expérimentations pratiques et de réception de l’aéronautique navale (naval aviation reception and trials center, CEPA) at Mont de Marsan for military trials being conducted jointly with the air force.
Beginning in September, when the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is expected to be back at sea, it will undergo a series of full-load catapult tests, at full engine reheat.
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