It is one of the most secret places around Rennes. Sealed behind barbed wire and rows of trees, the DGA-MI (for General Directorate of Armaments-Information Control) brings together 2,500 people in 78 buildings. The mission of these army “geeks”: to develop cutting-edge techniques in the fields of electronic warfare, communication systems, cyber defense and, more recently, artificial intelligence. Some of them also test the stealth of the devices. In other words, their ability to go incognito for as long as possible under enemy radar.
Suspended by cables for a battery of tests
It is precisely this type of test that is underway in Bruz. And not on just any aircraft: the Rafale F4, the fighter plane from the Dassault company, the flagship of the French Air Force. To find the trace of the Rafale in Bruz, we have to go back to 2013, when the F3 model also tested its stealth there. Just out of the Mérignac factory, near Bordeaux, the Rafale F4 tested in Bruz was content with a running-in flight to Mont-de-Marsan, before being dismantled and transported by truck to Bruz where it was reassembled. mid-April. Before going to Solange’s house.
Solange? This is not the neighbor who agreed to guard the plane in her garden, but an XXL-sized DGA building. Named Solange, for Heavy orientable system for aircraft and large machines, this cylindrical base is a concrete “cathedral” 40 meters high and 58 meters in diameter which does not allow any waves to pass through. It is here that the Rafale undergoes a battery of tests until mid-June. The idea? Suspended by cables, the aircraft is inspected from every angle by cutting-edge equipment, from all angles, armed or not. The idea? Analyze its radar footprint whatever its position and inclination.
“The Rafale must adapt to an evolving threat”
“Within Solange, radars send waves of all types of frequencies to the plane, explains Frédéric Bouyer, general armament engineer and director of the DGA-MI. We analyze how these waves bounce off the plane. Compiling all these measurements then allows us to define the radar signature of the aircraft, which allows us to see how the aircraft is seen by enemy radars.
A battery of tests which will then allow the Rafale to evolve. “The Rafale is an aircraft that must adapt to an evolving threat, as we have seen during recent conflicts,” observes chief armaments engineer Thomas, technical manager of the Rafale. This aircraft is versatile and must be able to carry out ground attacks, carry out long-range interventions and fire support, but also be capable of carrying out a nuclear strike. It therefore faces all types of radars and frequencies. Knowing its radar signature allows us to guarantee its ability to intervene.”
Concretely, data from the DGA-MI will allow the Air Force to improve the preparation of its missions. “This work will also have an impact on the development of the successor to the F4, the F5, which will enter service over the next decade. »A fighter plane which will have to be even more discreet.
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