French DGA Takes Delivery of Rafale C137 Aircraft

Dassault Aviation and Thales have announced that the the French defence procurement agency (DGA) has officially taken delivery of the Rafale C137, the first production Rafale equipped with the Thales RBE2 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. The delivery took place at Dassault Aviation's Mérignac establishment near Bordeaux.

The Rafale is the first European combat aircraft in operational service equipped with the Thales RBE2 AESA radar. The radar is designed to bring a number of key operational benefits, including extended range capabilities supporting low-observable target detection and full use of new weapon systems such as the Meteor air-to-air missile; higher reliability for reduced maintenance and lower through-life support costs; greater waveform agility for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging and improved resistance to jamming.

According to Dassault Aviation and Thales, the project was completed on time and on budget, and ‘owes its success to exemplary cooperation with the DGA and all the companies involved in the RBE2 AESA programme’.