New details on the Rafale M deployement to Afghanistan

The defense Blog "Le Mamouth" reveals some new technical details about the Rafale tour of duty in the Indian ocean for the next months :

The airwing will be made of 10 Rafale M F3, 12 Sem and 2 Hawkeye (+ the usual helicopter fleet).

The Rafale will have 2 Reco-NG pods (provided by the french Air Force) for recce missions. This pod has just entered into operational service and will be used for the first time in a war zone. All the facilities necessary to operate this pod were installed in The Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in 2008. One of the most visible modification is the large antenna fitted at the back of the ship allowing inflight transmissions with the pod.
The Rover capability is also confirmed and should boost the CAS efficiency of the fighter jets with coalition TIC (Troops in Contact)

After this mission, the CdG will sail to the EAU for the "Big Fox" exercice in February 2011.




Picture 1 : CdG crew trains in the Mediterranean sea ©Jerome Piriou, May 2010
Picture 2 : 2 Rafale M F3 on the CdG deck. The antenna dedicated to the Reco-NG pod can be seen of the bottom right hand corner