Rafale Wallpapers

Rafale Wallpapers

<b>Rafale Aircraft; photo wallpapers:</b> In the mid 1970s, both the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) and Navy (Aéronavale)
had a requirement (the Navy's being rather more pressing) to find a new
generation of fighter (principally to replace AdlA Jaguars and
Aéronavale Crusaders), and their requirements were similar enough to be
merged into one project. The Rafale A technology demonstrator was rolled out in late 1985 and made its maiden flight on 4 July 1986, The SNECMA M88
engines being developed were not considered sufficiently mature for the
initial trials programme to be conducted without risk (though their
development status has often been underplayed), so the demonstrator
flew with General Electric F404-GE-400 afterburning turbofans as used on the F/A-18 Hornet. The demonstrator impressed the French Ministry of Defence enough to place production orders in 1988. Further testing continued, including carrier touch-and-go landings
and test-flying early M88 engines, before the Rafale A was retired in 1994. Though the Rafale A and EAP were broadly comparable, when the first Eurofighter
made its maiden flight in March 1994, pre-series Rafales had been
flight-testing for three years, including carrier trials (Rafale C01,
Rafale M01 and Rafale B01 first flew in May 1991, December 1991 and
April 1993 respectively). Three versions of Rafale were in the initial production order:

• Rafale C (Chasseur) Single-seat fighter for the AdA (Armée de l'Air, French Air Force)
• Rafale B (Biplace) Two-seat fighter for the AdA
• Rafale M (Marine) Single-seat carrier fighter for the Aéronavale

The prototype Rafale C flew in 1991, the first of two Rafale M prototypes flew later that year, the prototype Rafale B flew in early 1993
and the second Rafale M prototype flew later that year. Catapult trials
were initially carried out between July 13 and August 23 1992 at NAS Lakehurst in New Jersey,
USA, and Patuxent River, Maryland, USA, France having no land-based
catapult test facility. The aircraft then undertook trials aboard the
carrier Foch. Initially the Rafale B was to be just a trainer, but Gulf War and
Kosovo experience showed that a second crewmember is invaluable on
strike and reconnaissance missions, and therefore more Rafale Bs were
ordered, replacing some Rafale Cs. A similar decision was made by the
Navy, who initially did not have a two-seat aircraft on order; the
program nevertheless was stopped. Political and economic uncertainty meant that it was not until 1999 that a production Rafale M flew. The French forces were once expected to order 292 Rafales: 232 for
the Air Force and 60 for the Navy. Reductions are now widely predicted,
and only 120 Rafales have been officially ordered to date. These are
being delivered in three separate batches, the most recent being the
December 2004 order for 59 Rafales, though the French MoD has revealed
that this figure is currently under study and is likely to be reduced
to 51 aircraft "for the same overall cost". It was hinted that the
sacrifice of 8-12 aircraft would "allow for the introduction of new
sensors developed by the French industry on this batch." The marine version has priority since the aircraft it is replacing are much older, especially the Vought F-8 Crusader fighter which is a 50 year old design. Service deliveries began in 2001 and the type 'entered service' on 4 December 2000, though the first squadron, Flotille 12, did not actually reform until 18 May 2001. The unit embarked on the Charles de Gaulle in 2002,
becoming fully operational on 25 June 2004, following an extended
opeval (operational evaluation) which included flying limited escort
and tanker missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom over
Afghanistan. Though restricted to an air-to-air role, with a limited
range of weapons the Rafale M was claimed by some to be the most
advanced fighter in service in Europe. The Armee de l'Air received its first three Rafale Bs (to F2
standards) in late December 2004. They went to the CEAM at
Mont-de-Marsan for operational evaluation and associated pilot
conversion training. The first Armée de l'Air frontline unit, Escadron
de Chasse 1/7 Provence, will form at St. Dizier during 2006, delayed
deliveries having forced some delay to the squadron's stand up date.
FOC was until recently still optimistically scheduled for September
2006, but has now slipped back to mid-2007, when the type should be
fully operational as an Omni-role fighter/fighter-bomber with Mica
AAMs, Scalp EG ASMs, GPS-guided bombs, and LGBs (though the latter will
be designated by other platforms or by ground based systems).

Rafale Gallery:

Rafale, 15971