The Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard (French for "battle standard") is a French carrier-borne strike fighter aircraft designed for service with the French Navy. The aircraft entered service in June 1978 and is expected to be retired from French service by 2010.

Design and development

The Super Étendard is a development of the earlier Étendard IVM that was originally to have been replaced by a navalised version of the SEPECAT Jaguar (the Jaguar M), until this plan was stalled by political problems.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 October 28, 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.

Operational history

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 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 Étendards and five Exocets were shipped to Argentina. All five of the missiles were used during the conflict, with one missile hitting the British destroyer and two 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 British aircraft carrier but the attacking aircraft failed to find their target. (A sixth Exocet, which damaged , was a land-launched ship's missile, set up in an improvised truck-trailer platform by Argentine technicians.)

As of 2009, Argentine Super Étendards are still in service.

France

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

From 1991, the original Étendard IVMs were withdrawn from French service, and the Super Étendards underwent continuous modernisation through the 1990s to enable them to use the latest generation of laser-guided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 Héraclès starting November 21, 2001 saw the deployment of the Charles de Gaulle and its Super Étendard in Afghanistan. Operation Anaconda, starting on March 2, 2002 saw extensive use of the Super Étendard in support of French and allied ground troops. Super Étendard'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 Étendards are expected to be retired from French service by 2010, to be replaced from 2006 onwards with Dassault's Rafale M.

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, 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

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• Argentine Navy received 14 aircraft, eleven are still in service with the Naval Aviation.

• Aviation Navale received 60 aircraft, all are to be replaced by Rafale M.

• Iraqi Air Force loan five French aircraft between 1983 and 1985.

Accidents and incidents

• On May 27, 1982, a Super Étendard crashed off the coast of Toulon; the pilot was killed.

• In September 1986, a Super Étendard crashed into the Mediterranean Sea; the pilot ejected.

• During the night of April 2, 1987, a Super Étendard disappeared during a training flight north of the Île Vierge lighthouse off the northwestern coast of Brittany. Neither the aircraft nor the pilot were found.

• In July 1987, a Super Étendard crashed in a forest in Ille-et-Vilaine; the pilot ejected.

• During the night of July 17, 1988, Super Étendard 54 crashed during a carrier landing on the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau; the pilot was killed.

• On May 31, 1990, a Super Étendard pilot ejected off the coast of Hyères. He was rescued by a Dauphin helicopter from the French Navy's squadron 23S

• On March 27, 1994, Super Étendard 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 January 26, 1996, a Super Étendard crashed off the coast of La Ciotat; the pilot ejected.

• On April 14, 2004, Super Étendard 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 December 7, 2005, Super Étendard 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 March 21, 2006, a bird shattered the canopy of Super Étendard 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 Étendard Modernisé 43 from the French Navy's flotilla 11F landed hard at BAN Landivisiau and was damaged; there were no injuries.

• On March 21, 2008, a Super Étendard 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 October 1, 2008, at 17:10 (local time), two Super Étendards Modernisés (numbers 38 and 49) from the French Navy's flotilla 11F collided over the bay of Lannion, about north of Morlaix. The 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 of water, and the rescue attempts for the second downed pilot ( Sébastien Lhéritier) were called off the next day at noon. On October 17, wreckage and the missing pilot's body were found north of Île de Batz with the assistance of robotic submersibles.

Specifications

See also