Super Étendard Modernisé

The Dassault Super Étendard derives from the Dassault Étendard IV and was adopted by the Aéronavale from June 1979, after winning a competition with a Navalised version of the Sepecat Jaguar. Its introduction was intended to replace the Chance-Vought F-8 Crusader in air defence roles (which it never fully achieved), while the Étendard IVM/P continued to perform attack and reconnaissance missions. The modernisations carried out in recent years mean that the Super Étendard is still a very valid attack platform, despite its design dating back to the 1950s.

Today, the Dassault Super Étendard represents the backbone of the Aéronavale, having operated on Flotilles 11F, 14F and 17F and having 53 specimens of this fighter. It is also still used in a very limited way in Argentina and Iraq. With a more powerful engine, adequate avionics equipment and a Thompson CSF/ESD Agave radar with ETNA navigation and attack system, this aircraft was far superior to its predecessor. The range of weapons that the Super Étendard can carry is limited by its reduced warfare capacity, despite which it is very varied: the nuclear bomb AN52, the nuclear missile ASMP, air-to-air missiles Matra.550 Magic 2, 68mm rockets, BAP 100/BAT 120 bombs and the anti-ship missile AM.39 Exocet (whose use requires dismantling the two 30mm DEFA guns). The apparatus has been tested in combat in many conflicts, including the "Falklands Crisis", the "Gulf War" or operations on Bosnia, with a more than positive result.

In the 1980s it was modernised (under the SEM programme - Super Étendard Modernisé), having been equipped with a new cockpit instrumentation, inertial navigation system, HOTAS controls, a modern wide-angle HUD, NVG night vision compatibility and the capacity to carry the ASMP nuclear missile. The Thomson CSF/ESD Agave I-band monopulse radar has also been replaced by an improved version called Anemone and it is estimated that the Super Étendard will be in service until 2005. Without a doubt this aircraft remains an extremely valid attack platform; a patrol of four Super Etendard armed with AM.39 Exocet anti-ship missiles would represent a fearsome adversary for any armada.