Dassault-Breguet Super Etendard

Super Etendard

Picture - A Super Etendard performs a touch-and-go landing on the flight deck of the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74).

Role: Attack aircraft
Manufacturer: Dassault-Breguet
First flight: 28 October 1974
Introduced: June 1978
Status: Active
Primary users: French Navy Argentine Navy Iraqi Air Force
Produced: 1977-1983
Number built: 85
Developed from: Dassault Etendard IV

The Dassault-Breguet Super Etendard (French for "battle flag") is a French carrier-borne strike fighter aircraft designed for service with the French Navy. The aircraft entered service in June 1978 and was first used in combat by Argentina during the 1982 Falklands War.

Design and development

The Super Etendard is a development of the earlier Etendard IVM that was originally to have been replaced by a navalised version of the SEPECAT Jaguar (the Jaguar M), until this plan was stalled by political problems, together with problems with operating the Jaguar aboard ships, including the inability to land back on a carrier after an engine failure. Instead, Dassault proposed an improved version of the Etendard IVM, with a more powerful engine, a new wing and improved avionics. This proposal was accepted by the French Navy in 1973 as the Super Etendard.

The Super Etendard is a small, single-engined, mid-winged aircraft with an all metal structure. Both the wings and tailplane are swept, with the folding wings having a sweepback of about 45 degrees, while the aircraft is powered by a non-afterburning SNECMA Atar 9K-50 turbojet with a rating of 49 kN (11,025 lbf). It is fitted with a Thomson-CSF Agave radar, closely integrated with the new air-launched version of Aérospatiale's anti-shipping missile, the AM 39 Exocet, which forms the main anti-ship armament of the aircraft. French Etendards could also carry tactical nuclear weapons.

The first of three prototypes, a IVM modified with the new engine and some of the new avionics, made its maiden flight on 28 October 1974. The French Navy initially ordered 60 of the new model, with options for a further 20, but budget cuts lead to only 71 being purchased in the end, with deliveries starting in June 1978, while the Argentinian Navy ordered a further 14. Production was completed in 1983.

Operational history

Argentina

Picture - 2nd Sqd insignia

The Argentine Naval Aviation decided to buy 14 Super Etendards in 1980, after the United States put an arms embargo in place-due to the Dirty War-and refused to supply spare parts for their A-4Q Skyhawks. Assigned to 2nd Naval Air Fighter/Attack Squadron, Argentine pilots used French flight trainers between November 1980 and August 1981 in France, but at the time of the Falklands War, they had received only 45 hours of actual flight time in the aircraft. Between August and November 1981, five Super Etendards and five Exocets were shipped to Argentina. All five of the missiles were used during the conflict, with one missile hitting the British destroyer HMS Sheffield and two the merchant aircraft transporter Atlantic Conveyor. Two missiles were used in each of those attacks.

Picture - Touch and go on USS Ronald Reagan

The fifth missile was launched in an attack intended to strike against the British aircraft carrier HMS Invincible but the attacking aircraft failed to find their target. (A sixth Exocet, which was fired from an improvised land based launcher failed to acquire a target, but the seventh missile hit and the warhead detonated causing casualties and damage to HMS Glamorgan. This launcher was designed by Argentine technicians.)

Once the conflict was over, Super Etendards performed qualifications on aircraft carrier ARA 25 de Mayo until the ship's final retirement From 2001, qualifications are made on Brazilian Navy carrier Sx£o Paulo and/or touch-and-go on US Navy carriers during Gringo-Gaucho maneuvers when they are in transit within Argentine coastal waters.

As of 2010, Argentine Super Etendards are still in service and French cooperation to upgrade the aircraft was announced.

France

Deliveries of the Super Etendard to the French Navy started in 1978, with the first squadron, Flotille 11F becoming operational in February 1979. In total, three operational squadrons and a training unit were equipped with the Super Etendard.

The first operational missions took place in Lebanon during Operation Olifant. On 22 September 1983, French Navy Super Etendards operating from the aircraft carrier Foch bombed and destroyed Syrian forces positions after a few artillery rounds were fired at the French peace keepers. On 17 November 1983, the same airplanes attacked and destroyed a Hizbollah training camp in Baalbeck after a terrorist attack on French paratroopers in Beirut.

Picture - Launch from Charles de Gaulle

France's Super Etendards were modified to carry the ramjet powered Air-Sol Moyenne Portée air-launched nuclear missile. From 1991, the original Etendard IVMs were withdrawn from French service, (although the reconnaissance version of the Etendard IV, the IVP remained in service until July 2000) and the Super Etendards underwent a series of upgrades throughout the 1990s to better suit them to modern warfare. These modifications included a new Thomson-CSF Anemone radar, with nearly twice the range of the previous Agave radar, the ability to carry and target the latest generation of laser-guided bombs and missiles, improved self defence ECM systems and the ability to carry a reconnaissance pod. These uprated aircraft, designated Super Etendard Modernisé (SEM) participated in NATO's Allied Force operations over Serbia in 1999, flying over 400 combat missions with 73% of the assigned objectives destroyed : the best performance of all the air forces involved in the missions over Serbia. The SEM also flew strike missions in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Operation Héraclx¨s starting 21 November 2001 saw the deployment of the Charles de Gaulle and its Super Etendard in Afghanistan. Operation Anaconda, starting on 2 March 2002 saw extensive use of the Super Etendard in support of French and allied ground troops. Super Etendard's returned to operations over Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008. One of their main roles was to carry laser designation pods to illuminate targets for Dassault Rafales.

All Super Etendards are expected to be retired from French service by 2015, to be replaced from 2006 onwards with Dassault's Rafale M.

Iraq

Five Super Etendards were loaned to Iraq in 1983 while the country waited for deliveries of Agave equipped Dassault Mirage F1s capable of launching Exocet missiles that had been ordered, arriving in Iraq on 8 October 1983. These aircraft used Exocets with some success against shipping (particularly tankers) sailing to and from Iranian ports, 51 attacks in total in the Persian Gulf before being returned to France in 1985. At least two were shot down during the spring and summer of 1984 by Iranian F-14s, while Iran claims to have shot down a third one. Of the two aircraft destroyed one was indeed shot down, the other was only damaged but crashed whilst trying to return to base. Only three aircraft were returned to France.

Operators

Picture - Argentine Navy's Super Etendard

Argentina

Argentine Naval Aviation received 14 aircraft, eleven are still in service.

France

Aviation Navale received 71 aircraft, all are to be replaced by the Rafale M.

Iraq

Iraqi Air Force was lent five French aircraft between 1983 and 1985. Only three returned.

Accidents and incidents

Argentina

1 August 1989, 0760 3-A-210. Pilot Lt Carlos Manchinelli died.
11 December 1989, 0762 3-A-212. Engine stopped. Pilot Lt Félix Médici ejected safely.
29 May 1993, 0754 3-A-203 . Pilot Lt Sergio Marquez died.

France

On 27 May 1982, a Super Etendard crashed off the coast of Toulon; the pilot was killed.
In September 1986, a Super Etendard crashed into the Mediterranean Sea; the pilot ejected.
During the night of 2 April 1987, a Super Etendard disappeared during a training flight north of the xŽle Vierge lighthouse off the northwestern coast of Brittany. Neither the aircraft nor the pilot were found.
In July 1987, a Super Etendard crashed in a forest in Ille-et-Vilaine; the pilot ejected.
During the night of 17 July 1988, Super Etendard 54 crashed during a carrier landing on the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau; the pilot was killed.
On 31 May 1990, a Super Etendard pilot ejected 110 km off the coast of Hyx¨res. He was rescued by a Dauphin helicopter from the French Navy's squadron 23S
On 27 March 1994, Super Etendard 5 from the French Navy's flotilla 11F crashed in the Adriatic Sea; the pilot was rescued from the water by a helicopter from squadron 23S.
On 26 January 1996, a Super Etendard crashed off the coast of La Ciotat; the pilot ejected.
On 14 April 2004, Super Etendard Modernisé 35 from the French Navy's flotilla 17F missed a landing on the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle, crashing on the runway; the pilot was unharmed.
On 7 December 2005, Super Etendard Modernisé 45 from the French Navy's flotilla 11F (registered F-XCKA) was lost at sea in the Gulf of Ajaccio after its engine ingested a bird. The pilot ejected and was only mildly injured.
On 21 March 2006, a bird shattered the canopy of Super Etendard Modernisé 3 from the French Navy's flotilla 11F, over Pontorson. The pilot made a forced landing in a field in Dinard.
On August 24, 2006, around 18:30 (local time), Super Etendard Modernisé 43 from the French Navy's flotilla 11F landed hard at BAN Landivisiau and was damaged; there were no injuries.
On 21 March 2008, a Super Etendard Modernisé from the French Navy's flotilla 17F was lost at sea south of Cavalaire-sur-Mer during a training flight. The pilot ejected safely.
On 1 October 2008, at 17:10 (local time), two Super Etendards Modernisés (numbers 38 and 49) from the French Navy's flotilla 11F collided over the bay of Lannion, about 27 km north of Morlaix. They were conducting a training flight originating from BAN Landivisiau. Both pilots ejected, but only one was rescued alive. The minesweeper Lyre (M648) was not able to locate the wreckage in over 60 m of water, and the rescue attempts for the second downed pilot (lieutenant de vaisseau Sébastien Lhéritier) were called off the next day at noon. On October 17, wreckage and the missing pilot's body were found 20 km north of xŽle de Batz with the assistance of robotic submersibles.

Specifications

Data from Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1982-83

General characteristics

Crew: 1
Length: 14.31 m (45 ft 11½ in)
Wingspan: 9.60 m (31 ft 6 in)
Height: 3.86 m (12 ft 8 in)
Wing area: 28.4 m² (306.7 ft²)
Empty weight: 6,500 kg (14,330 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 12,000 kg (26,455 lb)
Powerplant: 1x— SNECMA Atar 8K-50 turbojet, 49.0 kN (11,025 lbf)

Performance

Maximum speed: 1,180 km/h (637 knots, 733 mph) at low level
Range: 1,820 km (983 nmi, 1,130 mi)
Combat radius: 850 km (460 nmi, 530 mi) with one AM39 Exocet missile one wing pylon and one drop tank on opposite pylon, hi-lo-hi profile
Service ceiling: 13,700 m (44,900 ft)
Rate of climb: 100 m/s (19,700 ft/min)
Wing loading: 423 kg/m² (86.3 lb/ft²)
Thrust/weight: 0.42

Armament

Guns: 2x— 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA 552 cannons with 125 rounds per gun
Hardpoints: 4x— underwing and 2x— under-fuselage with a capacity of 2,100 kg (4,600 lb) maximum
Rockets: 4x— Matra rocket pods with 18x— SNEB 68 mm rockets each
Missiles:
1x— AM-39 Exocets Anti-shipping missile or
1x— Air-Sol Moyenne Portée nuclear armed missile or
2x— AS-30L or
2x— Matra Magic Air-to-air missile
Bombs: Conventional unguided or laser-guided bombs, provision for 1 x— AN-52 free-fall nuclear bomb, provision for "buddy" air refuelling pod

Related development

Dassault Etendard II
Dassault Etendard IV
Dassault Etendard VI

Comparable aircraft

A-4 Skyhawk
A-7 Corsair II

Bibliography

Donald, David and Jon Lake. Encyclopedia of World Military Aircraft. London, Aerospace Publishing, Single Volume Edition, 1996. ISBN 1 874023 95 6.
Grolleau, Henri-Paul. "The Aéronavale Spearhead". Air International, January 2008, Vol 64 No 1. Stamford, UK:Key Publishing. ISSN 0306-5634. pp. 38-43.
Huertas, Salvador Mafé. "Super Etendard in the Falklands: 2 Escuadrilla Aeronaval de Caza y Ataque". Wings of Fame. Volume 8, 1997. London:Aerospace Publishing. ISBN 1 86184 008 X.
Jackson, Paul. "France's Superior Standard". Air International, February 1986, Vol 30 No 2. Bromley, UK:Fine Scroll. ISSN 0306-5634. pp. 49-69.
Michell, Simon. Jane's Civil and Military Aircraft Upgrades 1994-95. Coulsdon, UK:Jane's Information Group, 1994. ISBN 0 7106 1208 7.
Ripley, Tim. "Directory:Military Aircraft". Flight International, 25-31 May 2004. Sutton, UK:Reed Business Press. pp. 38-73.
Taylor, John W.R. (ed). Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1982-83. London:Jane's Yearbooks, 1982. ISBN 0 7106-0748-2.

Dassault-Breguet Super Etendard Pictures and Dassault-Breguet Super Etendard for Sale.

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Source: WikiPedia