22 juillet 2019 | International, Aérospatial

Le Rafale, loin de disparaître, ambitionne de rester le meilleur avion de combat du monde.

PAR

Le temps n'est pas éloigné où les médias français ridiculisaient le Rafale de Dassault Aviation. Ils le présentaient comme une relique invendable et bientôt dépassée d'un temps où la France, dans la tradition gaulliste, voulait avoir des moyens de défense en propre au lieu de tout acheter aux Etats-Unis.

Aujourd'hui le Rafale a finalement fait sa percée à l'exportation avec plus de 144 appareils commandées, dont 96 fermes. Mais il faut aussi prévoir l'avenir. Le 14 janvier, sur la chaîne de montage du Rafale à Mérignac, Florence Parly ministre de la défense a annoncé que le gouvernement voulait lancer les recherches pour une nouvelle version du Rafale, dit au standard F4, pour laquelle un budget de 2 milliards, malgré les restricitons, a déjà été prévu. Par ailleurs les armées françaises comptent augmenter leurs acquisitions à partir de 2022 portant si possible sur cette nouvelle génération du Rafale, livrables entre 2022 et 2030.

Rappelons que le Rafale est le produit d'un ensemble d'industriels comprenant outre Dassault Aviation, Thales, Safran, MBDA-Missile Systems et des dizaines de sous-traitants. Inutile de préciser que chacun d'eux compte réutiliser dans le cadre d'autres produits militaires et civils le savoir-faire acquis.

Le Rafale augmentera ainsi sa supériorité sur ses concurrents européens, Eurofighter et Gripen. Inutile de préciser aussi que dans le même temps les déboires du programme américain F-35 , qui tourne au scandale politique majeur, élimineront la concurrence de ce dernier. Les gouvernements européens qui avaient par complaisance servile avec les Etats-Unis, accepté de s'en équiper, devront vraisemblablement se rabattre sur le Rafale F4. Ils n'y perdront rien.

Quant aux Su-35 et Su-57 russes, en dehors du marché indien où ils tentent de reprendre l'avantage sur le Rafale, ils ne sont en compétition avec lui quasiment nulle part, ce d'autant plus que le Rafale a déjà fait ses preuves dans divers engagements militaires en vraie grandeur, ce qui n'est pas autant que nous sachions le cas pour les russes.

Les innovations du F4 concerneront principalement sa capacité à opérer en fusion de données au sein d'un dispositif interarmes et interarmées. Il sera en mesure, gr'ce à des logiciels opérant par radio, de recueillir et d'échanger des informations en temps réel avec l'ensemble des systèmes d'armes, aériens, terrestres, navals, spatiaux, qui seront engagés sur une zone de guerre. Ainsi navires, troupes au sol, satellites, plateformes aériennes pilotées et non pilotées (UCAV) qui opéreront à ses côtés, pourront bénéficier des échanges avec eux, soit pour être informés de la situation sur le terrain, soit en effectuant certaines missions pour leur compte.

Le F4 sera doté d'un radar amélioré par rapport à l'actuel, dit AESA RBE2, qui pourra être plus précis pour des missions air-sol, plus puissant sur le mode air-air. Par ailleurs les spécialistes ont noté qu'il verra son système d'autoprotection SPECTRA ou Système de Protection et d'Évitement des Conduites de Tir et ses capacités de brouillage améliorées. Son optronique secteur frontal (OSF) sera doté d'infrarouge. Ceci améliorera les performances nocturnes de l'appareil jusqu'ici réduit à un capteur TV pour l'identification et la poursuite des objectifs aériens.

Ajoutons que Thales apportera sur le F4 ses savoir-faire en matière de gestion des données en temps réel (Big Data) et d'intelligence artificielle (IA) pour offrir au F4 des outils de maintenance prédictive qui devraient permettre non seulement de réduire significativement le coût du maintien en condition opérationnelle mais aussi de rehausser le taux d'appareils immédiatement disponibles, qui ne dépasse pas actuellement du fait des nécessités de la maintenance environ 60%.

On peut penser que le F4 sera est une nouvelle étape vers un Rafale F5, ou MLU (Mid-Life Upgrade), qui verra la pérennité de la filière pilotée assurée au-delà de l'horizon 2050, malgré les prédictions hasardeuses selon lesquelles les appareils pourront se passer de pilotes à bord.

Enfin le Rafale F4 pourra emporter le missile AS4NG (air-sol nucléaire de quatrième génération), missile hypersonique capable de voler à plus de 5.000 km/h et devant entrer en service à l'horizon 2035. Il pourra ansi rivaliser avec les missiles hypersoniques dont seront seuls dotés la Russie, la Chine et sans doute les Etats-Unis, lesquels s'efforcent actuellement de rattraper leur retard en ce domaine.

Il faut espérer que les futurs gouvernement français ne remettront pas en cause ces programmes, dans le désir de mieux financer la consommation ou de se conformer à des instructions de l'Otan.

https://blogs.mediapart.fr/jean-paul-baquiast/blog/190719/defense-le-rafale-f4

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