www.avionicstoday.com July 2011
Avionics Magazine
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1/91 and ETR 2/92 at Saint Dizier airbase in France, and EC 3/30 at Al Dhafraair base in the UAE. ECE 5/330 at Mont-de-Marsan is a further test squadron usedfor the permanent evaluation and updat-ing of the Rafale’s systems and weapons.In 2012, a fifth Rafale squadron will becommissioned at Mont-de-Marsan, EC2/30. Current plans call for the air force tofly three flottilles of Rafale Ms after 2015and air force some 10 squadrons by 2020.This year, 94 aircraft will be retrofit-ted to the F3 standard. Next standard of Rafale, now in early production, will becalled F3+ (or F3-04T) and will includethe Thales RBE2/AA AESA radar, a360° threat detector (MBDA’s missileapproach warning system) and a frontalsector optics set (Sagem’s FSO-IT), alldesigned to improve data fusion and situ-ational awareness.“Our aim is to keep the Rafale attop level of performance and interoper-ability. As it is set today, the aircraft’sarchitecture and platform show that theRafale will not need any further hardwarechanges before its mid-life update whichshould take place around 2025. Howevera detailled roadmap for the aircraft stillhas to be built,” said IGA Stéphane Reb,the Rafale program manager at the Direc-tion Générale de l’Armement (DGA),the French Procurement Agency. Fur-ther equipments are being developed toincrease the Rafale’s lethality.Topics under scrutiny include the inte-gration of the MBDA Meteor supersonicBVR air-to-air missile in 2018 and thelaser-guided version of the Sagem Arme-ment Air-Sol Modulaire (AASM), plusthe development of low collateral dam-age kinetic bombs; the development byThales of a more powerful laser designa-tion pod; and the adoption of additionalmodes for the Thales RBE2/AA AESAradar, tactical data link 16 upgrades andelectronic warfare suite improvements onthe Spectra system.
Advanced Systems
The 2011 air war operations over Libyahave brought the focus on some of theRafale’s equipment, notably the ThalesAreos advanced digital reconnaisancepod (known as Reco-NG in France); theThales Damocles laser designation pod;and the Sagem AASM 250-kg INS-guid-ed rocket bomb.
Thales Areos:
“See, Decide, Act” is just the basic operational process thatarmed forces need to control during waroperations, just as in Libya, where therisk of civilian collateral damage is pres-ent. A timely day/night image intelligence(IMINT) is required to feed correct infor-mation into the observe, orient, decideand act (OODA) decision cycle, and itneeds a full IMINT system rather than apuzzle of isolated equipment specified onstand alone performance criteria.The Thales Reco-NG (or Areos forexport, Airborne REconnaissance Obser-vation System) is a 2,000-pound digitalrecce pod designed to be adaptable toany modern tactical fighter. According toThales, it meets the full spectrum of oper-ational requirements in a broad range of scenarios and weather conditions becauseit integrates digital technology, both inthe sensor/detector solutions and the realtime/non-real time transmission capabil-ity. It is also interoperable with otherallied nations using STANAG 7023 and4545 for imagery, and STANAG 7085 fortactical datas.Operational on the Rafale since lastDecember, and after a long debuggingtrial period, the French recce nacellenow used over the Libyan theatre boastssophisticated operational automaticimagery collection modes. It is particu-larly suited to single-seat aircraft, a factwhich was validated when the system wasfirst deployed over Afghanistan by theFrench navy last December.Reco-NG/Areos serial productionwas launched by the French Ministryof Defense in 2005 — for both the airforce and navy — in order to replace thededicated Mirage F1CRs of the Frenchair force and the Super-Étendards of theFrench navy.To date 10 pods have been delivered byThales to the French amed forces. A totalof 20 pods are on order to equip the airforce (12) and the navy (8) with delivery
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to be completed by the end of next year.Two were ordered by DGA in 2009, six in2010, six in 2011, and six will be orderednext year. According to DGA, Areosprovides day identification capabilitiesthat are two-and-a-half times better thanthose of the Mirage F1CR’s Presto “wet-film” system and 8 times better than thoseof the legacy SDS250 photo pod of theSuper-Étendard. Some 20 French pilotshave been qualified on the Reco-NG sys-tem so far.Reco-NG/Areos has been designedto cope with the most stringent require-ments by coalition and NATO forcestoday, from low level, high speed tomedium and high level/long “stand off”imagery collection in a single pod.Among its key features are digital ele-ments which increase day/night IMINTcollection capabilities at long stand-off and short ranges; shorten the intelligencecycle and the operational tempo fromhours to a few minutes with a very accu-rate target location capability; increaseintelligence timeliness in the theater;increase flexibility in the operational useof IMINT collection systems to adapt tochanges in weather conditions or tacticalthreats changes during the mission; andensure operational/technical interopera-bility through technical standards agreedwithin the international community.The Reco-NG/Areos pod performanc-es are based on two day/night sensors.One sensor for short, medium and longcollection ranges (Dual Band Sensor DB-STARS, band 2) is integrated in the frontsection and one sensor for low level/highspeed imagery (Infra Red Line Scannerband 3) is integrated in the rear section.The DB-STARS collects imagery onlarge areas with the wide field-of-viewsensors, day and night, and can alsoacquire very high resolution imagery with
The long focal lens of the Areos (Reco-NG) digital reconnaissance pod providesseveral gigabytes of high-definition imag-esthat can be transmitted during flight.
P h o t o / J e a n - M i c h e l G u h l
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