Unlike the Rafale mission to Indonesia in March 2015, which consisted of one Rafale C (single seat) and one Rafale B (tandem seat), the Pegasus 2018 and Pegasus 2022 missions carried by the French Air Force were one flight consisting of three Rafale Bs.
Although what was brought was a tandem seat variant which incidentally was for the combat training function, the Rafale's action in its longest flight was maximized, especially during the Pitch Black 2022 multilateral air exercise which recently took place in Darwin, Australia.
In fact, the Rafale B in the midst of its role as a combat training aircraft, is no less fierce in assignment than the Rafale C. Since France's involvement in Operation Harmattan in Libya in 2011, Operation Serval in Mali in 2013, and Opération Chammal to crush ISIS in Iraq in 2014, the portion of the assignment The Rafale B is massive.
As in Operation Harmattan, the Rafale successfully carried out bombings with smart bombs from maximum altitude. The names of smart bombs such as the AASM "Hammer" precision-guided bomb and the Storm Shadow SCALP cruise missile have been full of dropping on various vital objects in Libya.
In Operation Serval, Rafale B was even flown directly from its base in France to carry out bombings in Mali. Together with Miraga 2000, Rafale carried out a series of high-precision bombings supported by tanker aircraft services.
Most recently, in April 2018, Rafale B from Escadron de Chasse 1/4 Gascogne, was involved in the mission of destroying selected targets in Syria. Together with British Air Force Tornado fighter jets, Rafale B successfully released Storm Shadow missiles.
For the record, France refers to Storm Shadow as SCALP EG (Syst̬me de Croisi̬re Autonome Longue Port̩e РEmploi G̩n̩ral), aka General Purpose Long Range Standoff Cruise Missile.
With the title of battle proven, when the Rafale B arrived at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base on August 19, many netizens in Indonesia paid great attention to the aircraft made by Dassault Aviation whose unit price (without weapons) reached 74 million euros.
In a press conference at the South Terminal, Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base (21/8/2018), Marc Antoine, the senior pilot of the Rafale, said that the Rafale has full air control capabilities. One of them is thanks to the existence of the RBE2 radar (Radar Balayage Electronique 2 plans), an AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar type.
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Simultaneously when the AESA radar is active, it can perform an air to air role – where 40 targets can be detected with eight of them lockable at once. Meanwhile, in the air to ground role, it can realize high resolution mapping, and in the air to ship role, it can detect and track the position of the ship on the surface.
Like the Eurofighter Typhoon, Sukhoi Su-27/Su-30 and Gripen E, the Rafale is equipped with front side optronics, also known as IRST (Infra Red Search and Track System). In general, the IRST can cover a distance of up to 50 kilometers. Regarding coverage, the azimuth angles range from -60 to +60 degrees, while the altitude angles range from -60 to 15 degrees.
When used in conjunction with radar in the air-to-air role, the IRST functions as an infrared seeker and tracking system, providing passive target detection. While in the air-to-surface role, the IRST performs target identification and acquisition.
The device also provides navigation and landing assistance. The IRST can also be directly connected to the display on the pilot's helmet via the helmet mounted sight in FLIR mode, besides of course also the connection to the Head Up Display (HUD).
In general, the dimensional profile and aspects of the weapons on the Rafale B are similar to the Rafale C, only the Rafale B weighs 10,300 kg compared to 9,850 kg.
In a demonstration flight on August 21, two Rafale B units at Halim Air Base managed to prove that this twin engine fighter jet (2 × Snecma M88-2 turbofans) can take off from a distance of 400 meters.
With afterburners, the Rafale B, which was boarded by Lt. Col. Pnb. Anton “Sioux” Pallaguna, Commander of the 11th Air Squadron and Lt. Col. Pnb Muchtadi Anjar “Beagle” Legowo, could immediately shoot high with an uphill speed of 300 meters per second.
For the French Air Force, including three Rafale Bs in the 2018 Pegasus Mission has been carefully calculated. For example, in the introduction of aircraft, by bringing three tandem seat aircraft, Armée de l'Air has more opportunities to promote by inviting selected fighter pilots from friendly countries to fly.
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