Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard
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| Super Étendard | |
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 A Super Étendard performs a touch-and-go landing on the flight deck of the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74). |
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| Type | Attack aircraft |
| Manufacturer | Dassault-Breguet |
| Maiden flight | 1974-10-28 |
| Introduced | June 1978 |
| Status | Active |
| Primary users | French Navy Argentine Navy Iraqi Air Force |
| Number built | 74 |
The Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard (French for "battle standard") is a French carrier-borne strike fighter aircraft in service with the French and Argentine Navies. Five were also flown by the Iraqi Air Force for a brief period during the Iran-Iraq War.
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[edit] Design and development
The Super Étandard is a development of the earlier Étendard IVM that was originally to have been replaced by a navalised version of the SEPECAT Jaguar, the Jaguar M, until this plan was stalled by political problems. The prototype first flew on 28 October 1974. The French Navy initially ordered 60 of the new model, which were delivered in June 1978 and the Argentinian Navy ordered 14. The Super Étendard had been developed in parallel with a new air-launched version of Aérospatiale's anti-shipping missile, the AM 39 Exocet, and these were supplied to Argentina as well.
[edit] Operational history
[edit] Argentina
The Argentine Navy decided to buy 14 Super Étendards 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. Argentine pilots utilised 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. [1] Between August and November 1981, five Super Étendards and five Exocets were shipped to Argentina. All five of the missiles were used during the conflict, with one missile destroying HMS Sheffield and one the merchant aircraft transporter Atlantic Conveyor. Two missiles were used in each of those attacks. The fifth missile was launched in an attack intended to strike against the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible but the attacking aircraft failed to find their target. (A sixth Exocet, which damaged HMS Glamorgan, was a land-launched ship's missile, set up in an improvised truck-trailer platform by Argentine technicians. During the Falklands War Super Etendards flew 580 sorties without a single aircraft being lost.[2])
[edit] Iraq
Five Super Étendards were loaned to Iraq in 1983 while the country waited on deliveries of the Dassault Mirage F1s that had been ordered. These aircraft used Exocets with some success against Iranian tankers, 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, Iran claims to have shot down a third one. Of the 2 planes downed one was indeed shot down, the other one was only damaged but crashed on on it's way back. Only 3 where returned to France.[citation needed]
[edit] France
The first operational missions took place in Lebanon during Operation Olifant. On 22 September 1983, French Navy 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 Beyrouth.
From 1991, the original Étendard IVMs were withdrawn from French service, and the Super Étendards underwent continuous modernisation through the 1990s to enable them to use the latest generation of laser-guided precision weapons. These uprated aircraft, designated Super Étendard Modernisé (SEM) participated in NATO's "Allied Force" operations over Kosovo 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 Kosovo. The SEM also flew strike missions in Operation Enduring Freedom.
Operation Heracles starting 21 November 2001 saw the deployment of the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier 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.
All Super Étendards are expected to be retired from French service by 2010, to be replaced from 2006 onwards with Dassault's Rafale M.
[edit] Operators
- Aviation Navale 60 (to be replaced by Rafale M)
- Iraqi Air Force 5 (1983 - 1985)
[edit] Specifications
General characteristics
- Crew: 1
- Length: 14.31 m (45 ft 10 in)
- Wingspan: 9.60 m (31 ft 6 in)
- Height: 3.85 m (12 ft 4 in)
- Wing area: 29 m² (312 ft²)
- Empty weight: 6,460 kg (14,200 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 11,500 kg (25,300 lb)
- Powerplant: 1× SNECMA Atar 8K-50 turbojet, 49.0 kN (11,000 lbf)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 1,180 km/h (637 knots, 733 mph)
- Range: 3,400 km (2,200 mi)
- Service ceiling 13,700 m (44,900 ft)
- Rate of climb: 100 m/s (19,700 ft/min)
- Wing loading: 396 kg/m² (81.1 lb/ft²)
- Thrust/weight: 0.43
Armament
- Guns: 2× 30 mm (1.18 in) cannon
- Bombs: 2,100 kg (4,600 lb) of bombs and rockets
[edit] See also
Related development
Comparable aircraft
Related lists
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Argentine Navy Super Étendards - youtube video
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