The Rafale F4 fighter jet has gained a smarter way to hunt enemy air defense radars after French firms Dassault Aviation and Harmattan AI completed a successful flight test of a drone-mounted electronic warfare (EW) system.
During the trial, a drone equipped with the new NAMIB EW payload reportedly detected, identified, and geolocated hostile radar emissions from several dozen kilometers away.
It then transmitted the coordinates to the Rafale for a simulated strike.
“This flight demonstrates the Rafale’s real and tangible multi-domain collaborative combat capabilities,” said Eric Trappier, chairman and chief executive officer of Dassault Aviation.
“The F4 standard architecture enables seamless communication with a very broad range of operational assets, including ground forces, allowing it to effectively leverage new capabilities, such as NAMIB’s electromagnetic detection and geolocation functions.”
NAMIB EW in Focus
Designed for a wide range of unmanned aircraft, the lightweight NAMIB payload can be integrated into quadcopters and long-endurance fixed-wing drones.
It is intended to enable drones to locate radar threats before relaying targeting data to crewed platforms, allowing them to operate farther from hostile air defenses.
The system entered development earlier this year as part of a joint initiative by Dassault Aviation and Harmattan AI to integrate autonomous technologies into future air combat systems.
“Through NAMIB, we are demonstrating that these capabilities can now be deployed on lightweight autonomous systems operating close to the threat,” said Mouad M’Ghari, co-chief executive officer and co-founder of Harmattan AI.
“This achievement highlights the complementary strengths of Dassault Aviation and Harmattan AI, combining decades of experience in air combat systems with our expertise in autonomy and embedded intelligence.”
