The French Ministry of the Armed Forces has launched development studies for the future version of the Rafale combat aircraft, which will be permanently connected with other military assets engaged in an operation.
“The first orders were notified to manufacturers a few weeks ago,” Minister Sébastien Lecornu declared on Tuesday, at the Saint-Dizier air base (north-east).
The so-called F5 Rafale standard, which will be in service in the next decade, will, according to him, constitute a “real revolution for our air forces”.
At the heart of this future version of the Rafale, an aircraft which will fly until the 2060s, is “the rise of connectivity”. The device will interact in particular with sensors and accompanying drones, on the ground, in flight and in space.
For its nuclear strike mission, the Rafale F5 will be equipped with the ASN4G, the future French hypersonic nuclear missile which is due to enter service in 2035.
For the minister, these projects contribute to the “technological credibility” of French deterrence.
Sébastien Lecornu also revealed that he had signed “a few months ago” a “first development contract with Dassault Aviation”, manufacturer of the Rafale, to design a “stealth combat drone” responsible for “supporting the aircraft in reconnaissance , air-to-air combat as in air-to-ground missions.
“Its stealth, its positioning in front of the Rafale, will prepare the way for it and facilitate penetration” of the device, he explained, specifying that the program will rely on the heritage of the Neuron but will be “well more technologically ambitious.
The Neuron is a drone project intended to test technologies, particularly stealth, led by Dassault Aviation since 2003 in cooperation with Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Greek and Swiss partners. It has completed more than 170 test flights.
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