Question about the French Airforce

**kato** · 23 Mar 11,, 13:50

If we went by oil, Italy would have 50,000 men crossing the mediterranean already. Austria, Switzerland and Ireland too. Those are the ones with higher dependency on Libyan oil than France.

**Tin Man** · 23 Mar 11,, 14:04

The USAF F-15-E that went down was from the "Heath in the UK.

The French have said they have conducted recon ALL OVER LIBYA. Good on them getting into this as quickly as they did, the most decisive action so far in stopping that armoured column advancing on Benghazi. Rafale uses the SPECTRE defensive aids suite, according to RAF reports the system is excellent in the A2A arena. Whether the capability is as good against SAM systems using different bands is as good remains to be seen. The Damocles pod is also supposed to be excellent kit.

I think it is fortunate Libya has no double digit Russian SAM systems with operators having the smarts to use them as smartly as the Serbs did way back when. Admittedly, the Serbs had more places to hide. Not much cover in open deserts.

**USSWisconsin** · 23 Mar 11,, 15:05

Originally Posted by Tin Man

I think it is fortunate Libya has no double digit Russian SAM systems with operators having the smarts to use them as smartly as the Serbs did way back when. Admittedly, the Serbs had more places to hide. Not much cover in open deserts.

It sucks to be them.

**gunnut** · 23 Mar 11,, 22:10

Originally Posted by USSWisconsin

Isn't there a step where they drain the onboard wine tank?

I'm sure you meant "wing" tank.

**Zad Fnark** · 24 Mar 11,, 02:30

Saw this posted elsewhere...

Dailymotion - Libye : appareillage et montée en puissance du porte-avions Charles de Gaulle - une vidéo News & Politics

Interesting footage, but gawd, Super Etendards. That's about like flying F-8s from one of ours. How long is that thing going to hang around?

ZF-

**kato** · 24 Mar 11,, 10:22

Originally Posted by Zad Fnark

That's about like flying F-8s from one of ours.

The Super Etendard isn't that old really. Came into service in 1978. The current SEM-5 isn't that bad, regarding air-to-ground it's probably on par with a Rafale F2 (air-to-air it sucks, but that's why the carrier has Rafales). They were in fact still definitely needed till last year as nuclear missile carriers because the Rafale M F3/ASMP-A combo didn't become operational until July 2010.

And btw - the French did use Crusaders before

Originally Posted by Zad Fnark

How long is that thing going to hang around?

2013.

**Zad Fnark** · 24 Mar 11,, 14:01

A little newer than I thought, at the top of my head. I was thinking early 70's. Yeah, their F-8s did stick around 'til 2000.

I always thought that Jaguar-M might have been a better choice, capability-wise. It did look rather hot (to me) for carrier ops, though.

ZF-

**kato** · 24 Mar 11,, 14:52

In comparison to SE/SEM? Nah. The Jag M was underpowered like hell, and was proven not to be able to perform a captured landing with only one engine. The investment to upgrade it with new engines, new landing gear, structural reinforcement etc would have been enormous.

The money was fixed down before the project. Was planned to be enough for 100 planes - Jag M would have been 50, SE came out to 71 planes in the end.