Karan M wrote:Indranil wrote:Spectra is just a unified suite of self defense sensors and countermeasures. It is not used for missile guidance.
On Mica IR the terminal guidance is through IR.
Spectra is used to finetune missile guidance measurements (minimal use of radar), but also allows for over the shoulder shots via Mica (exact range not specified), though its IR indicates its mostly used in a WVR fashion.
During our assessments, we performed BVR and WVR engagements with the Mirage 2000 C RDI (analyzed in more detail in Part 3 of this test), where we had the opportunity to confirm the combination of the sensibility of SPECTRA EW with the all-aspect launching and target acquisition of MICA IR. This allowed us to designate the target from any source (EM / IR / Laser Threat Detection - Electromagnetic Threat Detection / Infrared / Laser), when the security bubble around the Rafale was invad-ed, and to execute the missile launch “over the shoulder.” Over the shoulder means that a MICA can be fired at a target located at position six o’clock (behind the aircraft) without changing flight direction.
In addition to these piloting protections regarding the safe operation of a high perfor-mance aircraft, the Rafale gives us the feeling of flying in a shielded bubble. The SPECTRA suite of internal Electronic Warfare, developed by Thales and MBDA in-corporates situational awareness features and warning to a large range of different spectral hazards. More than ‘merely’ protection, it puts the pilot out ahead of threats with the benefit of the needed time to make the best decision. SPECTRA also integrates the Data Fusion of the Rafale, and allows the locking on to a threat, so in turnabout, the threat becomes the target. See the examples in engagements with the Mirage 2000 C RDI in Part 3.
https://www.defesanet.com.br/rafale/not ... fference-/
Spectra can do a stealth mode with active radar cancellation?
http://www.f-16.net/forum/viewtopic.php ... 0detected.
Our colleagues at Air & Cosmos report that the French government is funding a demonstration of improved stealth technology for the Dassault Rafale fighter, with a focus on active cancellation techniques. The story itself is not online but is being discussed at the Key Military Forum.
Dassault
Active cancellation means preventing a radar from detecting a target by firing back a deception signal with the same frequency as the reflection, but precisely one-half wavelength out of phase with it. Result: the returned energy reaching the radar has no frequency and can't be detected.
It's quite as difficult as it sounds. Some reports have suggested that the so called SP-3 or ZSR-62 "radar jamming device" planned in the early days of the B-2 program was an active cancellation system. It did not work and was scrapped in 1987-88. In 2005, Northrop Grumman paid $62 million to settle a False Claims Act case involving the system.
This may not be the first French attempt to implement AC on the Rafale. At the Paris air show in 1997, I interviewed a senior engineer at what was then Dassault Electronique, about the Rafale's Spectra jamming system. He remarked that Spectra used "stealthy jamming modes that not only have a saturating effect, but make the aircraft invisible... There are some very specific techniques to obtain the signature of a real LO aircraft."
"You mean active cancellation?" I asked. The engineer suddenly looked like someone who deeply regretted what he had just said, and declined any further comment. (As Hobbes once put it after pouncing on an unsuspecting Calvin: "We tigers live for moments like that."*)
The fact that a new demonstrator is being contemplated suggests that the technology may not have been up to the job the first time round - but since AC depends on electronics and processing, that picture may have changed. MBDA and Thales, which absorbed Dassault Electronique and is now the prime contractor on Spectra, have since confirmed that they are working on active cancellation for missiles.
The whole Spectra program has been a major venture, including the construction of four new indoor test ranges, including the colossal Solange RCS range discussed in Ares in 2007. That facility will probably play a major role in the new demonstrator program.
