Rafale B video, nuclear attack run.

[sandozer]

French Air Force release, in French good chance to brush up on your old school Francais !

The nuclear weapon has had a censors brush applied, but you get the drift.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Acxj1DNBqe0&channel=Armeedelairfrancaise

[Donkey497]

Considering what is hanging underneath the plane in the middle if the hangar, the notice in big red letters on the back wall cannot be there as a health promotion........ :-)

[Lima Juliet]

Why don't the Frogs like retractable AAR probes? :confused:

Seems to be a common theme for their aircraft...

LJ

[air pig]

Donkey, don't you realise that smoking has killed far more than nuclear weapons.

[Herod]

Why don't the Frogs like retractable AAR probes?

What happens if the probe gets stuck in the retracted position? Why complicate matters?

[TBM-Legend]

A friend of mine flies RAAF Super Hornets and he tells me that they operate in Iraq always with retractable probe extended in case they have a malfunction and then can't get refuelled...

[Rhino power]

A friend of mine flies RAAF Super Hornets and he tells me that they operate in Iraq always with retractable probe extended... Wouldn't flying with a retractable probe open all the time be problematic, isn't there a limiting speed? I imagine the door which covers the opening takes quite a battering if the probe is extended for the duration of the flight! Fixed refuelling probes are all aerodynamically shaped (apart from the Israeli and Spanish AF lash-ups they used on some of their F-4's!) to allow for the airflow...

-RP

[4Greens]

We did the same thing off carriers in the 60s. Big deal !

[glad rag]

Superbe!
Nice wee message for our Ronald and Mr Putin

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

At 8:45, looks like they are still operating Mirage 2000N.

[Rhino power]

F3WMB, 5 squadrons still flying the Mirage 2000N...

-RP

[exhorder]

Very interesting clip, thanks!

@Rhino power: Just one sqn (EC 1/2) remains flying the 2000N, out of the original three. Three additional squadrons operate the very similar, but non-nuclear 2000D.

[cribble]

Was the view at 8:24 a different aircraft (or different centreline store)? The wide open view of the store would probably concern the censors otherwise?

[Rhino power]

Thanks for the update, exhorder. I guess scramble.nl need to update their database! Having double checked though, is it not EC02.004 that are left flying the N?

-RP

[stilton]

'Wouldn't flying with a retractable probe open all the time be problematic, isn't there a limiting speed?'


Doubt it, it looks a bit draggy but we had no speed limit on the extendable wingtip landing lights on the MD80, surprising what you can stick out there.

[Reinhardt]

You can remove the "0" and write EC (Escadron de Chasse) 2/4
which means second squadron of the 4th Fighter Wing, even if this last one no longer exists and squadrons are autonomous now...

[AreOut]

"The nuclear weapon has had a censors brush applied, but you get the drift."

at 2:51 he clearly says "nucler"

[pr00ne]

What a palava!

The UK equivalent would be a Trident launch.

[Reinhardt]

The UK "equivalent" couldn't not exist : they no longer have nuclear bombers such as the FAF Rafale and Mirage 2000N pictured in this video. In the same way they no longer have aircraft carriers or maritime patrol capabilities.


French Navy also has some onboard the nuclear carrier "Charles de Gaulle"


Of course France has nuclear missiles-launching submarines (SNLE)


As for the UK Trident missiles, it's simply a US-designed missile, built in America and maintained there. Same for the nuclear warheads - so talking of an independent déterrent force is simply a joke.


The nuclear weapon with a censors brush applied is an ASMP-A (search on the internet for clear pictures, easy...)

[pr00ne]

Reinhardt,


Try researching the facts.

UK equivalent of that sortie would be a low yield Trident strike warhead.
It would be a Trident missile launched from a British designed and built submarine carrying a British designed and built warhead using British designed and built penetration aids.

It IS independent, as it can be launched on the say so of the UK Prime Minister and no one else with no external verification or authority.

To those on the receiving end, where the missile was built would be rather irrelevant.

[Courtney Mil]

http://www.jetfly.hu/rovatok/jetfly/honap/deltaszarnyu-elrettentok-francia-atomhordozok/21-1_resize.jpg

[Wander00]

Is that a black Citroen I hear....................

[bobward]

It could be Jacques Bauer in that Citroen.....

[Treble one]

If you gentlemen would like an air delivered nuclear weapon, then there's at least one WE177 at IWM Duxford.


Just a warhead required?


And If you can persuade Dr Plemming, perhaps we can get the Blue steel there tooled up and loaded on to XH558?

[AreOut]

watching it again it might work against N. Korea IRL but hardly against any other nuclear power, except maybe as a first strike out of nowhere to catch them unprepared

[stilton]

That is one very pretty aircraft, the Typhoon looks positively homely in comparison :eek:

[hoofie]

Reinhardt wrote:
Same for the nuclear warheads - so talking of an independent déterrent force is simply a joke.

Bullcrap - even as a civvie I know UK trident warheads are UK designed and built with material from the UK Nuclear industry.

Why do people persist in pushing such patently wrong information ?

[glad rag]

@AreOut
The role of that particular weapon, in french hands, is to provide a final warning prior to employment of slbms..

Nice picture courts it may be the angle, but do the jugs constrain the use of fuselage mraams?

[Courtney Mil]

Glad Rag,

I found this picture and a couple of others, which show the outer stations available with underwing tanks. The other two (centreline) stations taken up here by the fuselage tank. Others even show planned use of METEOR with the same, 3-tank configuration. There appear to be plenty of a-a stations available even with tanks and bombs. I shall refer to my source some more and see what's around.

[AreOut]

"The role of that particular weapon, in french hands, is to provide a final warning prior to employment of slbms.."

then they wouldn't have to enter enemy's airspace just detonate it somewhere near

the thing is any competent air defense on high readiness would take them down before they had opportunity to launch missiles

[Heathrow Harry]

nice shot of the bomb at around 8:20+

[KenV]

As for the UK Trident missiles, it's simply a US-designed missile, built in America and maintained there. Same for the nuclear warheads - so talking of an independent déterrent force is simply a joke.


That's not quite accurate.

The missile is US, but the "physics package" is entirely UK. That includes the fissile material, the design, the assembly, the installation, etc, etc. The re-entry vehicle (RV, with the "physics package" inside) is a UK design based on US specs for mass, aerodynamics, etc. The UK even has its own "penetration aids" inside those RVs. And the most important part: UK Trident missiles are in UK submarines, manned by UK sailors, and under the complete control of UK defense authorities. They are indeed truly independent operationally, which is where it really counts.

[gr4techie]

The role of that particular weapon, in french hands, is to provide a final warning prior to employment of slbms..

Is it a tactical ? For scenarios like the Fulda Gap?

[PhilipG]

I thought that the range of the ASMP A was meant to be some 500 km, at supersonic speed, making it a good stand-off weapon.

[glad rag]

I do admire the way they "just get on with it" and quietly produce excellent integrated aircraft, sensor's and weapons. 500k (flight profile dependant) stand off ramjet nuke all their own work... Definitely not working for the Yankee dollar..

[Reinhardt]

Qinetiq, the "british" defence research agency, is mainly structured around American interests (Carlyle Group) since the privatisation. Fact.
So those people sold their "formerly" independant research capabilites (Boscombe Down, Farnborough) to the yankee dollar, as rightly said by glad rad


Yes, in the Rafale everything is French (engine, radar, ECM, nuclear missile) - to the great displeasure of US.


Pity our current government is currently sold to US interests (the result: a pityful 18% approval rate in the population) So things might change soon - wait for next elections ...


Back to the sub'launched missiles : Trident is american, so if they are removed, the Royal Navy can revert to combat divers on kayaks to deliver those "proudly british " warheads

[pr00ne]

Reinhardt,

Er, just exactly how on earth does a company "structure round American interests?"

It is a UK owned company that is very active in the US, the largest defence marketplace on earth by a country mile. A rather good move I would have thought for a DEFENCE and technology company.

Just who is going to "remove" the UK's Trident missiles?

[Heathrow Harry]

"The role of that particular weapon, in french hands, is to provide a final warning prior to employment of slbms.."

then they wouldn't have to enter enemy's airspace just detonate it somewhere near"

brings back memories of the early days of the French Force de frappe when the missiles would just about reach the Franco-German Border ............. the idea was to turn both Germanies into a blasted wasteland.....how THAT was supposed to deter the Russians was never made really clear......

[Courtney Mil]

Eh? Force de Frappe started with Vautour bombers with free fall bombs in '55. This wasn't perfect, but neither was the Soviet atomic, later nuclear, capability at that time. Then they added the S2 IRBM - meaning a range of 3,000 to 5,500 km. Hardly the Franco-German border. Then it was Mirage IV, M4 SLIRBMs and the third largest nuclear force in the world. Added to NATO's might, I think that deterred the Russians.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

..indeed, plus the fact that the French have always kept exclusive control over their nuclear forces.

A bottle (or four) of St-Emilion over lunch and who knows what the French President will order next? Creme de Cassis frappe, ou Moscow Frappe? ;)

[tartare]

Sigh - the Mirage 4.
Now THAT was a jet.
What a monster.
And I read the RAF could have had a Spey-engined variant.

[Reinhardt]

True : South Africa also would have been interested, for high-altitude reconnaissance (to replace Canberras) and long-range bombing (they bought Buccaneer instead)
Australia also would have been interested.
But it was decided in France, not to export them, because of the "nuclear smelling"
For the same reason, Mirage IV were never landing in foreign countries (officially) - they had to wait for nuclear capabilities to disappear in the 90s, to start airshow tours in Europe, as well as Africa and Middle-East operationnal trips.
One of them dropped a nuke for real (July 1966) over the Polynesian test range....

[TEEEJ]

France Studies Nuclear Missile Replacement | Defense News | defensenews.com (http://www.defensenews.com/article/20141129/DEFREG01/311290019/France-Studies-Nuclear-Missile-Replacement)