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Radar Doppler Multifunction
The RDM (Radar Doppler Multifunction), also known as the Cyrano 5, is a French multimode pulse-Doppler radar developed by Thomson-CSF (now Thales) for export variants and early French models of the Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft. It is an evolution of the Cyrano IV installed on the Mirage F-1 and in turn was developed into the RDI (Radar Doppler à Impulsions), a specialist air-to-air radar for French Mirage 2000 interceptors, and the multimode RDY (Radar Doppler Multitarget), which could track more targets at a time and added further air-to-ground modes. History The first prototype of the RDM flew in January 1980 and production deliveries began in early 1983. Thomson funded development of the RDM from the Cyrano IV at a cost of FFr350m (~US$50m); the RDI air intercept derivative was funded by the French government. The RDM was intended for export Mirage 2000's and the first 50 for the French Air Force; the remaining 150 French Mirage 2000C's would have the RDI. In the end only 37 a ...
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Pulse-Doppler Radar
A pulse-Doppler radar is a radar system that determines the range to a target using pulse-timing techniques, and uses the Doppler effect of the returned signal to determine the target object's velocity. It combines the features of pulse radars and continuous-wave radars, which were formerly separate due to the complexity of the electronics. The first operational Pulse Doppler radar was in the CIM-10 Bomarc, an American long range supersonic missile powered by ramjet engines, and which was armed with a W40 nuclear weapon to destroy entire formations of attacking enemy aircraft. Pulse-Doppler systems were first widely used on fighter aircraft starting in the 1960s. Earlier radars had used pulse-timing in order to determine range and the angle of the antenna (or similar means) to determine the bearing. However, this only worked when the radar antenna was not pointed down; in that case the reflection off the ground overwhelmed any returns from other objects. As the ground moves at ...
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Thomson-CSF
Thomson-CSF was a French company that specialized in the development and manufacture of electronics with a heavy focus upon the aerospace and defence (military), defence sectors of the market. Thomson-CSF was formed in 1968 following the merger of Hotchkiss-Brandt, Thomson-Houston-Hotchkiss-Brandt with the Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil (''General Wireless Telegraphy Company'', commonly abbreviated as ''CSF''), these two companies being the source of the name ''Thomson-CSF''. It operated as an electronics specialist on products such as broadcasting equipment, Acoustical engineering#Electroacoustics, electroacoustics, shortwave radio sets, radar systems and television. During the 1970s, the company diversified manufacturing Telephone exchange, backend telephony equipment, semiconductors, and medical imaging apparatus. It also entered into large deals outside of the domestic market, acquiring considerable business in the Middle East. During the late 1980s, Thomso ...
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Mirage 2000
The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine, fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was designed in the late 1970s as a lightweight fighter to replace the Mirage III for the French Air Force (''Armée de l'air''). The Mirage 2000 evolved into a multirole aircraft with several variants developed, with sales to a number of nations. It was later developed into the Mirage 2000N and 2000D strike variants, the improved Mirage 2000-5, and several export variants. Over 600 aircraft were built and it has been in service with nine nations. Development Previous projects The origins of the Mirage 2000 could be traced back to 1965, when France and Britain agreed to develop the "Anglo-French Variable Geometry" (AFVG) swing-wing aircraft. Two years later, France withdrew from the project on grounds of costs, after which Britain would collaborate with West Germany and Italy to ultimately produce the Panavia Tornado. Dassault instead focused o ...
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Fighter Aircraft
Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield permits bombers and attack aircraft to engage in tactical bombing, tactical and strategic bombing of enemy targets. The key performance features of a fighter include not only its firepower but also its high speed and maneuverability relative to the target aircraft. The success or failure of a combatant's efforts to gain air superiority hinges on several factors including the skill of its pilots, the tactical soundness of its doctrine for deploying its fighters, and the numbers and performance of those fighters. Many modern fighter aircraft also have secondary capabilities such as ground-attack aircraft, ground attack and some types, such as fighter-bombers, are designed from the outset for dual roles. ...
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Mirage F-1
The Dassault Mirage F1 is a French fighter and attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was developed as a successor to the popular Mirage III family. During the 1960s, Dassault commenced development of what would become the Mirage F1 as a private venture, alongside the larger Mirage F2. Work on the F1 eventually took precedence over the costlier F2, which was cancelled during the late 1960s. The French Air Force (''Armée de l'Air'') took interest in the fledgling fighter to meet its requirement for an all-weather interceptor aircraft. Accordingly, initial production units were equipped with the Thomson-CSF Cyrano IV monopulse radar. During the latter half of 1974, the Mirage F1 entered service in the French Air Force. Shortly thereafter, the type was deployed as the main interceptor of the French Air Force, a capacity which it continued to serve in until the arrival of the Mirage 2000. It later transitioned to an aerial reconnaissance role. In Jul ...
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Radar Doppler Multitarget
Radar Doppler Multitarget (RDY in its French acronym) is a multimode Look-down/shoot-down Pulse-Doppler radar designed by Thomson-CSF (now Thales) for the Mirage 2000-5 fighter. The RDY-3 derivative has been fitted to Moroccan Mirage F1's. Thomson has claimed that the original RDY outperformed the AN/APG-66/ 68 of the F-16 and the AN/APG-65 of the F/A-18 Hornet. Design The original RDI/ RDM radars on the Mirage 2000 only worked in air-to-air mode. The RDY was designed to add air-to-ground modes, in particular the ability to control Exocet and Kormoran 2 anti-shipping missiles. The system has a flat-plate antenna scanning a 3.5° beam over a 60° cone at powers up to 120 kW. Maximum range is in air-to-air mode and in look-down mode. The RDY can detect 24 targets, track eight of them and engage four targets at a time. The enhanced RDY-2 has a slightly greater range and adds a SAR mode. History Development began in 1984, with the first of nine prototypes flying in July 19 ...
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French Franc
The franc (, ; sign: F or Fr), also commonly distinguished as the (FF), was a currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money. It was reintroduced (in decimal form) in 1795. After two centuries of inflation, it was redenominated in 1960, with each (NF) being worth 100 old francs. The NF designation was continued for a few years before the currency returned to being simply the franc. Many French residents, though, continued to quote prices of especially expensive items in terms of the old franc (equivalent to the new centime), up to and even after the introduction of the euro (for coins and banknotes) in 2002. The French franc was a commonly held international reserve currency of reference in the 19th and 20th centuries. Between 1998 and 2002, the conversion of francs to euros was carried out at a rate of 6.55957 francs to 1 euro. History The French Franc ...
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French Air Force
The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Army; it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the French Air Force. On 10 September 2020, it assumed its current name, the French Air and Space Force, to reflect an "evolution of its mission" into the area of outer space. The number of aircraft in service with the French Air and Space Force varies depending on the source; the Ministry of Armed Forces gives a figure of 658 aircraft in 2014. According to 2018 data, this figure includes 210 combat aircraft: 115 Dassault Mirage 2000 and 95 Dassault Rafale. As of 2021, the French Air and Space Force employs a total of 40,500 regular personnel, with a reserve element of 5,187 in 2014. The Chief of Staff of the French Air and Space Force (CEMAAE) is a direct subordinate of the Chi ...
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Look-down/shoot-down
A radar system has look-down/shoot-down capability if it can detect, track and guide a weapon to an air target that (as seen by the radar) is silhouetted against the ground. Problem and naming Airborne intercept radar relying exclusively on time domain radar techniques is effectively blind any time the radar's antenna is aimed towards the Earth's surface. That is because pointing the radar at the ground produces a large reflection. That reflection and the ensuing "cluttered" display overwhelms human operators and computing systems (see ground clutter). Radar systems of this type are essentially useless when pointed ‘down’ at the surface, with the zone of weakness near and below the horizon. This zone can be actively utilized by enemy combatants wishing to hide from radar tracking utilizing a technique known as terrain masking. Frequency domain signal processing combined with time domain signal processing, as in pulse-Doppler radar, is a way to eliminate that vulnerability. L ...
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Super 530
The Matra Super 530 is a French short to medium-range air-to-air missile. The Super 530 series is an improved type of the R.530 missile. *Super 530F is carried on the Dassault Mirage F1. It was introduced in 1979. *Super 530D is carried on the Dassault-Breguet Mirage 2000. It was introduced in 1988. The Super 530F and Super 530D share the same general aerodynamic features and internal layout with cruciform low aspect ratio wings, cruciform aft controls, and 30 kg high explosive fragmentation warhead. However the 530D has a lengthened stainless steel body. This allows it to accommodate a more powerful dual-thrust solid propellant motor and a new seeker assembly. The new seeker includes doppler filtering for improved low altitude performance and digital micro-processing to enable the seeker to be reprogrammed against new threats. The 530D has a claimed maximum interception altitude of , with a snap-up capability of , and a snap-down capability to targets at . The missile h ...
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Cassegrain Antenna
In telecommunications and radar, a Cassegrain antenna is a parabolic antenna in which the feed antenna is mounted at or behind the surface of the concave main parabolic reflector dish and is aimed at a smaller convex secondary reflector suspended in front of the primary reflector. The beam of radio waves from the feed illuminates the secondary reflector, which reflects it back to the main reflector dish, which reflects it forward again to form the desired beam. The Cassegrain design is widely used in parabolic antennas, particularly in large antennas such as those in satellite ground stations, radio telescopes, and communication satellites. Geometry The primary reflector is a paraboloid, while the shape of the convex secondary reflector is a hyperboloid. The geometrical condition for radiating a collimated, plane wave beam is that the feed antenna is located at the far focus of the hyperboloid, while the focus of the primary reflector coincides with the near focus of the ...
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Radar Cross-section
Radar cross-section (RCS), also called radar signature, is a measure of how detectable an object is by radar. A larger RCS indicates that an object is more easily detected. An object reflects a limited amount of radar energy back to the source. The factors that influence this include: *the material with which the target is made; *the size of the target relative to the wavelength of the illuminating radar signal; *the absolute size of the target; *the incident angle (angle at which the radar beam hits a particular portion of the target, which depends upon the shape of the target and its orientation to the radar source); *the reflected angle (angle at which the reflected beam leaves the part of the target hit; it depends upon incident angle); *the polarization of the transmitted and the received radiation with respect to the orientation of the target. While important in detecting targets, strength of emitter and distance are not factors that affect the calculation of an RCS becaus ...
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