Saturday, March 26, 2011

Rafale over Libya, days 7 and 8

The air operations over Libya are continuing for the French Air Force and Navy. Since last saturday March 21st, the Rafale is flying on a daily basis over the Libyan territory, exploiting almost the whole spectrum of its capabilities :

  • Air defense with mica IR/EM missiles
  • Stand off strikes with scalp-EG
  • CAS and interdiction with AASM and GBU-12 bombs
  • live Reconnaissance with reco-NG / AEREOS pod
  • budy-budy refueling 
A GBU is loaded on a Rafale M
Wednesday March, 25th : French fighters are now operating over Misrata, Zintan, Syrte an Ajdabiyah zones. A total of 30 planes (fighters, AWACS, Tankers...) were engaged in various tasks.

Recce : 2 Rafale air / 2 Rafale M
Interdiction : 4 Rafale air / 4 Mirage 2000D / 1 Rafale M / 1 Sem
Air Defense : 2 Mirage 2000-5F / 2 Mirage 2000-5EDA (Qatar) : those aircraft are base at La Sude, Crete

Rafale C with 4 AASM and a Damocles pod
Saturday March 26th : The French MoD is reporting several strikes on the Zintan and Misrata zones. 5 Soko Galeb attack fighters and 2 Mi-35 attack helicopters would have been destroyed on the Misrata Air Base.

Recce : 2 Rafale M
Interdiction : 4 Rafale air / 4 Mirage 2000D / 2 Rafale M / 2 Sem
Air Defense : 2 Mirage 2000-5F / 2 Mirage 2000-5EDA (Qatar)

Source and Pictures credit : French MoD

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