LPM 2023: Stealth drone or Rafale electronic warfare, it will take one of the two

To engage above a highly contested theater of operations, the French air forces have a very efficient aircraft, the Rafale from Dassault Aviation. Through its ability to operate at high speed at very low altitude, the French aircraft can in fact take advantage of terrain masking to avoid radar detection, at least as far as land radars are concerned. In addition, the aircraft has a reduced radar signature, without being described as stealthy, even if this characteristic tends to fade when the Rafale carries several cans of fuel and missiles or bombs on pylons. The aircraft also has a highly advanced self-protection system, SPECTRA, capable of containing the threat coming from both radar and infrared guided missiles. Finally, it uses so-called “stand-off” munitions, such as the SCALP cruise missile or the A2SM guided glide bomb, designed to be dropped at a safe distance from the target, and thus avoid Ground-Air responses. What's more, the system was proven in combat in 2011, when Rafale French seized the Libyan skies above Benghazi, while the opposing DCA was still active.

However, if the Rafale is capable of competing against SA-6 and SA-8 dating from the 70s as in Libya, and if it is likely that it is even capable of confronting a perfectly modern S-400 battery, the aircraft does not is not designed, like all devices of its generation, to penetrate a modern multi-layer anti-aircraft defense like those implemented by Russia or China, made up of terrestrial and airborne radars of frequency and of different powers, long, medium, short and very short range ground-air systems, all acting in a coordinated manner. Faced with such a threat, neither radada (very low altitude flight), nor Spectra nor the radar discretion of Rafale will not be significant, and we can even doubt that a stealth aircraft like the F-35 can do it due to the accelerated entry into service of low frequency radar. In this context, how can the French armies preserve their maneuvering and strike capabilities to support land and naval action, or to strike the opposing force in depth in order to disrupt its logistics and command?

Meeting this challenge requires having at least one of the three types of suitable equipment. On the one hand, it is possible to rely on ballistic strike or cruise missile capabilities, the subject having been covered in part in a previous article. However, this solution is expensive and unsuitable for long-term military actions, as evidenced by the exhaustion of Russian stocks in Ukraine. If it is already difficult to produce artillery shells at a rate sufficient to compensate for their use on the ground, it is impossible to do the same with missiles costing several million dollars each, each requiring several weeks to several months to be assembled. This capacity has an obvious benefit, but it is, intrinsically, not sufficient to support a high-intensity commitment over time. If the French armies already have equipment of this type, the SCALP and MdCN cruise missiles, the two other solutions which interest us today, a specialized version of the Rafale for Electronic Warfare and the suppression of opposing defenses, and a stealth combat drone model, are absent from its inventories.

Un Rafale dedicated to electronic warfare

The suppression of enemy anti-aircraft defenses is not a new subject. During the Cold War, the French Air Force even had squadrons specially trained and equipped for this, with the anti-radiation missile (understand anti-radar, nothing to do with nuclear) AS 37 Martel. However, this capacity was abandoned in 1997, not to be replaced, the General Staff then having to face critical budgetary and capacity arbitrations which have not ceased until recently. However, if the Jaguar and Mirage IIIE of the Cold War were able to carry out SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defense) missions, they paled in comparison to the two aircraft specialized in this mission implemented by the US Air Force. and the US Navy, respectively the EF-111a Raven and the EA-6B Prowler. Indeed, these devices had, in addition to anti-radiation missiles Shrike then Harm, powerful jammers capable of neutralizing enemy radars throughout an airspace, allowing other devices to enter and carry out their missions. Their effectiveness was particularly demonstrated during the air campaign against Iraq in 1990, as well as over Serbia and Kosovo a few years later.

The rest of this article is for subscribers only

The Classic subscriptions provide access to
all articles without advertising, starting at € 1,99.

Newsletter subscription