Video, Vishnu Som flies the Rafale Part II

This is the second part of the the Indian TV show "Higher, bigger, faster" about the Rafale.

Vishnu visits the base of Saint Dizier and the 3D design facility in Paris.

http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/bigger-higher-faster/the-story-of-the-rafale/257581

Video, Vishnu Som flies the Rafale

This is the complete video of the Indian TV show "Higher, bigger, faster" dedicated to the Rafale. The Indian journalist Vishnu Som, had the opportunity to fly the Rafale at the Istres Air base. During the flight which last more than 1 hour, he was demonstrated the omnirole capability of the aircraft, performing laser guided and gps simulated A2G strikes, A2A interception as well as very low altitude maneuvering in fully automated  terrain following mode.

Flying the Dassault Rafale

Stay tune for the next episode (Rafale over Libya)

nEUROn first Flight

The UCAV demonstrator nEUROn made its mainden flight this saturday, 1st December. Developped by 6 European countries (France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweeden and Switzerland) the project was initiated in 2003 by France in order to maintain and expend the R&D capabilities of the French military aerospace industries regarding stealth and fully autonomous flight of a combat aircraft.

Lead by Dassault aviation, responsible for the project management, final integration and stealth features, the European partners were assigned tasks corresponding to their domain of expertise :
The main fuselage was made by Saab, the wings by EADS casa, the rear fuselage and engine exhaust by HAI, the weapon bay by Alenia and the weapon system interface by Ruag.

Today's flight, which lasted 25 min, was the first of a serie of 80 that will take place in France, Sweeden and Italy during the next 2 years.

The chase plane which followed the nEUROn during its first flight was a Rafale B that can be breefly seen on that video

Video, gun training in Corsica

Very interesting video showing the Provence and Normandie Niemen Rafale preparing for gun training at the Solenzara Air Base in September 2012.

In the Press, Air&Cosmos special Rafale

Air&Cosmos has just released a special issue entirely dedicated to the Rafale. 100+ pages about the aircraft : Libya campain, French squadrons, Export oportunities, future developments....

Concerning the last topic, Air&cosmos is publishing an exclusive cgi picture of a Rafale carrying stealth weapon cocoons. (thx to Vuia for the pict.:) )

©Air&cosmos

India : integration of "Brahmos Mini"

Interesting news from the site Navy Recognition.com :

The company Brahmos Aerospace is working on a resized Brahmos missile, named Brahmos Mini, and plans live tests in two years.

Brahmos stand at Indo Defence/Indo Marine 2012 - © Navy Recognition.com

Rafale, the winner of MMRCA, may become one of the two aircraft using this missile in India.


The website says :

 The company's first focus will be the integration of the future Brahmos mini on future Indian platforms such as the Rafale (winner of MMRCA) and Mig-29K of Indian navy.

[...]

While no talks have occured yet between Brahmos Aerospace and Dassault Aviation they plan to start contacts once the first missile tests have occured.

Regarding weapon loads, the Indian-Russian Joint Venture believes that after the required development and testing, both Mig-29K and Rafale should be able to carry between 1 and 3 Brahmos Mini.

Video, Rafale in combat

A film by Gilles Espieussas Available mid November