French Navy Rafale Refuels A-400

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The French Navy tests a new refueling pod expanding the capabilities of the Rafale as a tanker. What do you think? Fighters used as tankers is a great idea? Fighters should stick to fighting? Maverick would never be the recovery tanker? Leave your comments below!!!

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[VoltaireVoltaire-zqzh]

I think you clearly missed the point here. This was a test to see whether the "nounou" Rafale could give fuel a slow moving plane, which was clearly to prepare for refueling the E-2D. France cannot send refueling planes everywhere in the world as US can, hence the use of Rafale M from the French carrier to refuel either other Rafales or the E2-D. A Rafale nounou can deliver about 2000 l of fuel at 400 nM of the carrier, for France this is a useful capacity to have.

[Desi]

You guys missed the point big time. This was a test to see whether the Rafale could refuel the future carrier wing E-2D. Only an A400M could simulate the slow speed at which the E-2D will operate.

[robertsmith]

Native French speaker here, "nounou" is indeed a word that represents a nanny or babysitter, it isn't used much however.

[JoJo-vmvk]

Guys, Rafale has 10350lbs of internal fuel.
There's a "super nounou" load with 4 external tanks, these are 11300lbs of extra fuel.
The normal load with 2 tanks would be 7000lbs of extra fuel.

If your buddy-buddy tanker can only give you 500lbs, I would question your mission planning 😅

We have different ways of using "nounou". One of them is "nounou mission" to top off the tanks of fighters after the catapult launch. They did it Libya in 2011 and it allowed the Navy fighters to complete their sorties without needing the over-tasked big tankers.

[Philistine]

The E-2 is the only carrier-capable AEW&C plane around, so France has a few to fly off of _Charles de Gaulle._ A few other countries operate (or used to operate) E-2s from land as well, including Israel, Japan, and Taiwan, but those are starting to be replaced by newer aircraft (in several cases, bizjets converted to the role).

[opalow_]

I think you missed the point, the Navy can't have tanker aboard so they use fighter aircraft as tanker, the exercise here was just a test for the upcoming AWACS (that their name in the french navy, probably the same as the american one but not sure) that will have refueling pods.
And btw the US Navy operate the same kinds of device on their hornet because... same issue hard to get a tanker aircraft on the deck.
Now those will be replaced by drone that are currently being tested for the french navy (in the 2030'). I see that you are both former pilot and I'm really surprised by how you approached the thing, yes that look fun but lord didn't you guessed there is actually a reason behind this ?
And I believe that the Rafale can deliver like 9 tons of fuel soooo it's not like 50 pounds either

[Devinci]

It's an emergency fast fuel delivery system.

[bertrandthomasflylover]

Hey guys! as military and experienced pilots you are certainly more qualified than us to judge if this is a good Idea or not, but you should definatly be aware of what your allies are equiped with...I mean yes we have hawkeys on the "Charles de Gaulle", and ordered new ones, Rafales can land on US carrier, and US F-18s on our. Always surprised how little you can know about France army. Yes we are a small country, with less than 250 fighters ( Rafales+mirage 2000) when you probably have 4000, but with 1/30th of what US spent on F-35 program we made a very capable fighter that is fully operational and still evolutive. I'm not at all a so called anti-american, I follow you! and many others on aviation subjects, or other things on US matters, love you guys, but just be kind, don't underestimate your friends, may be one day one of you or a buddy will be happy to take fuel from a Rafale, or land on our Carrier in case of an emergency...
Cheers From France 🤟✈️

[Flakey]

Shitty perpetual motion machine: A400 refuels Rafale, then the Rafale refuels the A400 back. Infinite range.

[maximilliancunningham]

When you meet up with Congressional Medal Of Honor Recipient, Leo Thorness, ask him, if he could have used a tanker, fighter buddy.

[schall]

They stopped reading one sentence before the explanation. France will receive E-2D where they currently have none so France tested the new probe with an A400M. End of story.

[frenchies-RTS]

With the M88 engine, a full loaded Rafale can stay airborne without refuelling at mach 0, 9 for 7hours. Buddy to buddy is not a perfect solution but it works when you don't have a blue tanker in the sky.

Let's take the more relevant example : the Rafale can carry the ASMP nuclear missile, to reach its target, he need refuelling. Will the US accepts to refuel the plane ? France want to be able to do it by its own. It also applies to conventional strike.

Don't take it bad, but history and recent history have proven our ally can let us down. That's why we pay to have our own fighters, our own nuclear carrier, our own nuclear deterrence and why we find way to refuel our navy's fighters with what we have.

[thisconnectd]

somebody recently explained why, its because they could empty the whole fuel into the a400 unlike other fighter jets also it was surrogate for also prop E2

[GSteel-rhiu]

Dudes this was in preparation for fueling the E2; explain the larger French CdG ops scenario.

[PeteVA-]

"Where's the tanker, " on your six! LOL!

[misawajason]

Japan's been rocking the E-2C since at least 2003 when I was first stationed here. Still see them in the air to this day.

[marc]

Votre arrogance est limite insultante pour vos collègues! vous êtes des simplets sans rien comprendre au monde qui vous entoure. Vous faites honte à votre armée! heureusement Trump va vous faire la leçon pour trouver un autre boulot.

[maximilliancunningham]

I saw some viz recently of a Rafale manoeuvring at air demo, in the European Alps, it was quite astonishing. High energy.

[CROM-onbz]

I thought fighter pilots were smarter... I'm shocked.

[AABrock]

They used the A400 because he refueled the Rafale right before the Rafale fueled the A400.