Thursday March 24th was a busy day for the Rafale and Mirage 2000D fleet. After the scalp raid on the Hun air base, the Mod reports that 1 Recce and 4 interdiction missions have been performed.
- Recce : 2 Rafale (French Air Force)
- Interdiction : 2 Mirage 2000D + 4 Rafale B/C + 2 Rafale M + 2 Super Etendard (GBU-12 + AASM bombs)
During these missions, a Libyan
Soko G-2A-E Galeb has been detected above the city of Misratah by an E-3. As it was a direct violation of the UN resolution 1973, a patrol of Rafale and Mirage 2000 was tasked to intercept the Galeb which was eventually destroyed just after landing on the Misratah airport by an AASM fired from a Rafale.
As a side note, it seems that the Scalp strikes were performed by Rafale B whereas the single seaters Rafale C/M are prefered for CAS and interdiction mission with the AASM guided bomb. It might be a good indication of the efficiency of the Rafale weapon system as far as workload is concerned.
In flight pictures of Rafale C + AASM taken by Thomas Goisque on Monday March 21st can be seen
here.
Also read :
reuters.com
Pictures credit :
French Mod
Rafale is more like a tourism aircraft for me. It is beautifully designed!
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