France’s defense ministry has awarded Thales a contract to develop onboard RF and electro-optical sensors and communication systems for Rafale F-4 multirole jet fighter aircraft. France’s government has signed a $2.3 billion contract for 28 updated Rafale F4 fighter jets from French-headquartered Dassault Aviation. The F4 standard is to improve the Rafale avionics and sensors in line with technological progress and operating experience. Thales will prepare for the introduction of the CONTACT radio; secure, intelligent communications server technology; and a Syracuse IV satellite communications capability. To ensure high survivability, new threat detection and jamming capabilities will be developed for the aircraft’s SPECTRA electronic warfare system. Further improvements to the air-to-ground mode of the RBE2 active electronic scanning array (AESA) radar are also planned. In addition, the TALIOS electro-optical sensor pod will incorporate artificial intelligence to analyse tactical data almost instantaneously in flight and extract and identify targets. The enhancements will enable aircrews to locate, identify, classify, and engage threats.
