India will place orders for 36 Rafale aircrafts which will be of exact standard which were tested by Indian air force under MMRCA Technical evaluation trials few years back which means it will be of the current production standard which is F3.3.
Dassault is currently manufacturing Rafale fighter jets which are of standard F3.3. Egypt which recently also has placed orders for 24 aircrafts will get Same standard F3.3 Rafales said Dassault officials. F3.3 standard Rafale will be equipped with an active array RBE2 AESA radar from Thales.
About F3.3 standard
F3.3 standard Rafale will be able to carry Reco NG aerial reconnaissance (AREOS) pod and 3rd generation Multifunction Targeting pod ” Damocles ” both which have been developed by Thales. ability to carry French ASMP-A air-launched nuclear missiles is irrelevant to export customers like India and Egypt and that capability will be taken off the fighters for India.
The f3.3 standard also gives Rafale ability to carry Scalp-Storm Shadow cruise missiles for Deep strike roles. Buddy-buddy in-flight refuelling. In Close air support roles use of laser-guided bombs, AASM and GBU-49 GPS-guided bombs along with Mica IR/EM missiles for Interception and air-to-air combat roles.
Delivery Schedules
After bagging order from Egypt, Dassault had planned to increase current annual production line of 11 aircrafts per year to 30 over next few years. India’s delivery schedule is still under negotiation and Defence minister Manohar Parrikar already has said that Indian Air force will start getting Rafale jets in next two years.
Future Rafale “F3 R” standard launched
Earlier last year French government and Dassault Aviation have agreed to start work on “F3 R” standard which will bring further upgrades to F3.3 standard. F3 R will feature software enhancements to make full use of the RBE2-AA radar, Meteor long-range air-to-air missile integration, SBU-64 dual-mode laser/GPS AASM smart bomb integration, improvements to Thales SPECTRA self-defence system, an Identification Friend or Foe interrogator/transponder with full Mode-5/ Mode-S-compatibility , New“F3 R” standard Rafales will enter production from 2018 on-wards.
SOURCE : http://idrw.org/
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