Rafale Jets: The Hammer and other weapon systems that make the aircraft lethal; read here

first batch of Dassault Aviation's Rafale jets are on its way to India from France. On Monday morning, five jets including three single-seater and two twin-seater aircraft took off from company's base and as per latest inputs, have landed safely at Al Dhafra airbase in UAE after a sortie in excess of 7 hours.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh h received first Rafale during his visit to  Dassault Aviation facility in Mérignac, France on October 8, 2019. However, arrival of aircraft after being refitted with India-specific enhancements was postponed by two months in wake of COVID-19 crisis.

As per Dassault,  Rafale is equipped with vanced weapon capabilities like:

•  MICA air-to-air “Beyond Visual Range” (BVR) interception, combat and self-defense missiles, in ir IR (heat-seeking) and EM (active rar homing).  MICA can be used within visual range (WVR) and beyond visual range (BVR);
•  METEOR is a very long-range rocket and ram-jet powered air-to-air EM missile. Its combination with Rafale weapon system is a real parigm change in air-to-air affairs;
•  HAMMER (standing for Highly Agile and Maeuvrable Munition Extended Range) is a modular, rocket-boosted air-to-ground precision-guided weapon series fitted with INS/GPS or INS/GPS/IIR (imaging infra-red) guidance kits;
•  SCALP long-range stand-off missile;
•  AM39 EXOCET anti-ship missile;
• Laser-guided bombs with different warhes from 500lbs to 2,000 lbs;
• Classic n-guided bombs;
• 2500 rounds per minute NEXTER 30M791 30 mm internal cann is available on both single and two-seaters;

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ditional capabilities

Furrmore, Rafale’s stores manment system is Mil-Std-1760 compliant, which provides for easy integration of customer-selected weapons, in this case, India's choice of weapons.

With its 10-tonne empty weight,  Rafale is fitted with 14 hard points. Five of m are capable of drop tanks and heavy ordnance. total external lo capacity is more than nine tonnes. Hence,  aircraft can lift equivalent of its own empty weight in paylos.

“Buddy-buddy” refuelling missions can be carried out in portions of air out of reach of dedicated and vulnerable tanker aircraft.

With its outstanding lo-carrying capability and its vanced mission system, a Rafale jet can carry out both air-to-ground strikes, as well as air-to-air attacks and interceptions during same sortie. It is capable of performing several actions at same time, such as firing air-to-air missiles during a very low altitude penetration phase: a clear demonstration of true “OMNIROLE” capability and outstanding survivability of  aircraft.

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