Here’s a self-portrait photo taken by a pilot of the French Air Force’s Escadron de Chasse 1/7 Provence, based at Saint-Dizier.
The fighter jocks depicted in the “selfie” is flying a Rafale C “omnirole” plane at very high altitude, with condensation trail clearly visible behind the jet.
Rafales of the Armée de l’Air have been involved in Libya and Mali air wars.
A further iterative development of the warplane has been recently announced: the new F3R standard will include the integration of MBDA’s Meteor BVR (beyond visual range) air-to-air missile, the latest version of the Sagem AASM Hammer air-to-surface guided munition and the newer version of the Thales’s PDL-NG laser designation pod.
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
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