Rafale F4 Plus: India's Air Superiority Gets a Boost with New Missile Options
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Explore CNC Systems →Rafale F4 Plus: India's Air Superiority Gets a Boost with New Missile Options\
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The Indian Air Force (IAF) is set to receive the upgraded Rafale F4 Plus variant, which will bring new air-to-air missile options to the country. The Rafale F4 Plus variant will be manufactured in India, with two new missiles, including the MICA NG, offering double the range of its predecessor.\
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Explore Carbon Fiber →MICA NG's IR variant provides long-distance targeting capabilities, rivaling China's PL-15 and Russia's R-37M, with a range of 150-160km. This is a significant improvement over the current MICA missiles, which have a range of around 50km.\
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Even though India will be integrating its own Astra Mk1 and MkII Air to Air missile on its Rafale fleet, MICA-NG will also come in an IR variant that will allow the missile to track and take out aerial targets using its onboard heat seeking sensors. This offers a unique ability to take out targets at long distances.\
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MICA-NG will have a range of 150-160km, which is the same as the Astra Mk1 (ER), but the use of IR Sensors comes with added advantages. The current go-to main close-range IR sensor-based ASRAAM has a range of just 50km.\
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China's PL-15 and newer very-long-range systems (PL-17), and Russia's R-37M, outrange Meteor, and France has taken a clue from it and is working on a very-long-range air-to-air missile called Comet — "nouveau missile air-air à très longue portée" as the Meteor successor.\
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MBDA's French side has confirmed that the new very-long-range air-to-air missile, successor to the Meteor, will come from the Rafale F4 and will be ready from 2030 onwards, indicating that the missile will likely see operations with the Indian Air Force (IAF). Reporting puts its expected range at up to ~300 km, above Meteor's, but the majority of improvements might be seen in the sensors rather than its propulsion, with some French media indicating that it might skip a ramjet like Meteor and might go for a dual- or triple-pulse rocket motor to make the missile more adaptable and also one that can be mass-produced.\
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Design thinking is shifting toward bigger solid motors, multi-pulse or multi-stage propulsion, AESA and multi-mode seekers for the new very long-range missiles. Meteor provided the range, but it was too expensive, and the production line was too slow due to poor order numbers, so it was planned that successor will address this issues.\
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DRDO already is working on its own ramjet based Astra MkIII that will supplement Meteor in its non-Rafale fleet but idrw was first to report that work on new air to air missile using non-ramjet engine is also under works by DRDO at advance stages that might be called Astra MkIV and will be lot cheaper then the MkIII and will use different propulsions like a triple pulse rocket motor for long range.\
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In conclusion, the Rafale F4 Plus variant will bring significant improvements to India's air superiority capabilities, with new missile options that will rival those of China and Russia. The MICA NG missile's IR variant will provide long-distance targeting capabilities, and the new very-long-range air-to-air missile, successor to the Meteor, will be ready from 2030 onwards.
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