Rafale B video, nuclear attack run.
 

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=Acxj...elairfrancaise

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........ :-)

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

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

LJ

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

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

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...

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

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

Superbe!
Nice wee message for our Ronald and Mr Putin

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

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

-RP

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.

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?

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

'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.

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...

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

at 2:51 he clearly says "nucler"

What a palava!

The UK equivalent would be a Trident launch.

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...)

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.