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49
revista
Latin
aero
www.latinaero.com
Number 3 - 2012
aircraft (10 Rafale Ms) will be made
between 2014 and 2107. Followed in
2018 by the integration of the MBDA
Meteor BVR missile. Current standard
for the Rafale is designated F3. Latest
machines are F3-3 aircraft. This variant
can launch the Raytheon GBU-24B Pa-
veway III 2000lb laser-guided bomb, the
heaviest bomb in the French inventory.
Residual developements should end
by the turn of 2012 and new works are
underway to underline the technologies
likely to be retained for the Standard
post F3 Rafale, for which no governmen-
tal decision has been taken yet pending
the signature with India of the fnal
Rafale contract for 126 aircraft of which
18 should be produced in France
(see
Latinaero N°1 and N°2)
.
The current French procurement
law was based on a export hypothesis
that would witness deliveries starting
by the end of 2011, thus allowing to
reduce the contracted shipments to the
French forces below the annual rate of
11 aircraft. Meaning 52 Rafales would be
handed over between 2009 and 2014,
instead of the 69 now earmarked for
that same timespan for a supplementary
an unanticipated budget investment of
some 1,1 billion euros for 2011-2013.
This anticipated set of deliveries, if
positive for the Rafale programme, was
made at the untimely expense of the
French Air Force’s Mirage 2000D feet
modernisation plan. A stalwart fghter-
bomber used currently by four squa-
drons and a conversion unit, the Mirage
2000D has been carrying with success
the brunt of both main and side French
expeditionary operations for years and it
is here to stay, at least until 2022-2025. If
with the Rafale quality counts, quantity
also does. And quantity supposes that
the Armée de l’Air must modernise at
once its Mirage 2000Ds too.
u
às custas do plano de modernização da
frota de Mirage 2000D da Força Aérea
Francesa. Um robusto caça-bombardeiro
utilizado atualmente por quatro esqua-
drões e uma unidade de conversão,
o Mirage 2000D vem realizando com
sucesso as missões principais e auxiliares
das operações expedicionárias francesas
durante anos e está aqui para fcar, pelo
menos até 2022-2025. O custo do pro-
grama foi estimado para €740 milhões
[R$1.8 bilhão] em 2009. O lançamento
do programa foi adiado para outubro
de 2011 e colocar para dormir. 77 aviões
vão estar em causa. O último projeto
de Lei das Finanças francesa solicitou a
abertura de € 4 milhões [R$10 milhões]
em dotações de pagamento. Mas nada
foi decidido na razão de “eurocrise”. Se
com o Rafale a qualidade conta, a quan-
tidade também. E para ter quantidade a
Armée de l’Air deve também modernizar
seus Mirage 2000D de uma vez.
u
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