DASSAULT RAFALE- A LONE WOLF

DASSAULT  RAFALE- A LONE WOLF 

Rafale which is being manufactured by Dassault essentially means a burst of fire in French and as the name suggests it is indeed a nightmare for the enemy.

This Omnirole jet came into the picture in the 1970s when the French air force and French navy was in search of a next-gen fighter jet to add into their fleet, Though the joint venture of UK , SPAIN, GERMANY, ITALY came up with EUROFIGHTER TYPHOON, Parallel to venture French company DASSAULT came up with DASSAULT RAFALE a truly omnirole fighter jet.

The first flight of Dassault Rafale was in 1986 and it came into service in 2001 with many more design changes and upgrades compared to its first prototype.

INDIA-DASSAULT DEAL :

INDIA signed a deal of 7.8 BILLION EURO for procurement of 36 DASSAULT RAFALE which calculates the unit price of 216 million euro, cheaper than the deal QATAR( 5.9 billion euro for 24 jets) as well as Egypt (5.2 billion euro for 24 jets).

FEATURES OF DASSAULT RAFALE :

Rafale having close-coupled canards and delta wing configuration generates enough drag and lift to makes it capable of taking off with a payload of 24.5 tones which is 2.5 times its own weight(near about 10 ton) and is the only jet to do so. 70 % of its surface is made out of composite material with extensive use of radar-absorbent material and having S shape air intake duct helps in reducing RCS by absorbing and reflecting radar waves, this makes it a true 4.5 gen aircraft with comparatively much lower radar cross-section and less likely to be tracked on enemy’s radar before it tracks using its RBE2 AESA RADAR which gives a range of 250-280km and shoots it down with its deadly no scape weapons, be it j10c of plaaf or f16 of paf.

DASSAULT RAFALE uses MICA IR as a standard air to air missile for short-range which gives a range of 20 km, MICA  EM which gives a range of 80km and the deadliest in the region MBDA METEOR which uses active radar homing and can be throttled( speed can be controlled) even after launch, having NO SCAPE ZONE of 60-80km, extended range of 150+km once fired it is sure that enemy will be down.
That’s why it is said that have if INDIA had rafale f-16’s would have been on the ground on 28feb 2019. Apart from missiles, DASSAULT RAFALE uses GIAT 30 which is a 30mm auto canon(125 rounds) and is able to carry various DRDO developed and other procured missiles, having 14 hardpoints it is a cup of tea for rafale.

The Indian variant of Dassault Rafale uses 2 SNECMA M88 4e engines which generates a dry thrust of 50KN and afterburner thrust of 75KN, these engine helps rafale to attain a maximum speed of 1.8 mach and lowest speed of 213km/h. This engine uses single crystal turbine blades which gives more life to the engine and less rcs to the surface.
DASSAULT RAFALE is capable of supercruise i.e flying at supersonic speed without using an afterburner resulting in low heat signature and long endurance to carry out larger distance missions, fuel-efficient too thus instead of drop tank, hardpoint can be used for pods, weapons etc, only a few jets like f-22 raptor have this capability.

WHY WE CAN CALL IT ALONE WOLF?

When engaged in a conflict generally a pack of jets are there to perform their individual task, some jets tracks enemy, some work as a decoy, few jets bombard ground targets, some engage with air target but DASSAULT RAFALE can alone track, engage with air target with its deadly meteor missile as well as bombard on ground target with a distance of more than 500km or even launch an anti-ship missile from air. As mentioned it is an omnirole fighter jet.

OMNIROLE CAPABILITIES:

Yes, it sets air superiority with lethal meteor missile, air to ground superiority with SCALP EG missile which travels at the speed of 1000km/h up to a distance of 560km and carries a warhead of 450kg which means airstrikes like balakot can be carried out from own airspace afterwards. Not only this rafale is capable of carrying Exocet anti-ship missile which gives a range of 180km, this led to call rafale a truly omnirole and a lone wolf.

RAFALE AND TEJAS TOGETHER :

Apart from these feature rafale does have an onboard oxygen generator in the cockpit, this technology has also been integrated in HAL TEJAS, to help long operations without worrying about oxygen canister, both the jets also use ISRAELI DASH HELMETS, which helps the pilot to carry out many things through DVI(-direct voice input) like targeting enemy, weapon selection using voice command, radio communication.

HOW RAFALE IS A GAME CHANGER FOR INDIA:

India possesses a potential threat from both China and Pakistan, Pak despite its sinking economy, on a daily basis violates ceasefire and do utter activities, though they have f-16 with near about similar capability be it radar or AIM missiles but lacks in stealth capability (rcs-5m2), thus in case of conflict no doubt rafale having least RCS(0.05-0.1m2) would be able to track and shoot down each of the enemy aircraft even before they could track it on the radar.

China with a friendly face in front and same animosity as pak in back, pushing their CHENGDU j20, and j-11 flankers based on su_27 on forwarding bases, As widely known flankers RCS is always an issue this would be a easy target for RAFALE, While Chengdu j20 can potentially be a threat, being a 5^th gen aircraft and much stealthier than rafale, but J20 is still flying with prototype engines and being heavy for thinner air in Ladakh region is not able to fly with its expected payload, this can be a relief for India but not for a longer period of time we desperately need AMCA to tackle this.

CONS IN RAFALE:

The speed of Mach 1.8 is decent but not enough for interception. The service ceiling of rafale is also less i.e only 50000 ft which is not a deal-breaker to be honest, we already have  su_30, mig 29 for the purpose. COST indeed is one of its cons, It is expensive than any of its competitors available across the globe but aces its purpose so this should be fine for a country which shares boundary with countries like Pakistan and China, also it is going to serve long thereby Dassault has included 40 years support that makes it worth the money.

SQUADRON OF IAF:

As of now, DASSAULT RAFALE is being operated by NO-17 squadron, reinstate on 10 September at AMBALA airbase of western command to tackle china and pak. Commanding officer GROUP CAPTAIN ROHIT KATARIA is leading the squadron; the motto of the squadron is udyam ajasram which means ARISE FOREVER.

The Indian air force will soon be setting up its second squadron at hasimara air, west Bengal.

SCAMS AND ALLEGATIONS:

1) Earlier a narrative was set up that govt bought expensive Dassault Rafale jets despite lower price in MMRCA 2.0  in which proposed price was lower as per the last govt, but as we saw INDIA bought cheapest amongst all those countries which procured Dassault rafale, as per defence analysts during mmrca 2.0  deal -only the price of jets were included no armaments were there, cost of pilot and technician training wasn’t also included even a basic set up is also required to operate new jets that too wasn’t included.

2) As per French media a suspicious payment of 1 million euro to a middleman who was recently arrested in Augusta Westland chopper scam, was found during a scheduled audit, later on, DASSAULT clarified that this payment was done to produce 50 scaled models of rafale which has been kept in front of airbases and headquarters of INDIAN AIR FORCE.

[ WRITTEN BY – LOKESH ]

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