French Air Force Flies First Sortie of Rafale Fighter’s F4.1 Standard

The French Air Force carried out the first alert sorties of the Rafale F4.1 standard demonstrating the readiness of the latest upgrade to the fighter jet.

“One year after its delivery to the ECE 1/30 “Côte d’Argent” located on BA 118, the Rafale F4.1 carried out a first alert sorties for the benefit of the training of the 30th fighter wing on 02/16. This alert demonstrates that the fighter's F4.1 is ready.” the French Air Force said in a tweet today.

The F4 standard includes upgrades of existing capabilities, like the Thales RBE2 radar, the Spectra Self-Protection Equipment, electronic warfare system, the  Infra Red Search and Track (IRST), the Thales Talios targeting pod, the Reco NG reconnaissance pod and the communications suite.

New additions include collaborative combat capabilities, the Thales Scorpion Helmet Mounted Display, the MICA NG air-to-air missile and the new 1000 kg variant of the Safran AASM “Hammer” Precision-Guided Munition (PGM).

Many of the new capabilities have been extensively tested during a test campaign in 2021, where two Rafale 4.1 were included in large-scale realistic scenarios, where the crews also implemented unspecified collaborative combat functionalities.