Dassault delivers AESA-equipped Rafale - UPI.com CLOUD, France, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- The first European-made combat aircraft equipped with Thales' Active Electronically Scanned Array radar has been delivered to the French military. Dassault Aviation delivered the Rafale fighter to the government's Directorate General of Armaments on Tuesday at its manufacturing plant in Merignac, near Bordeaux. "The development of the RBE2 AESA radar was decided in the context of a larger program to improve the Rafale's sensor suite, and also includes a missile launch warning system and an improved, new-generation front sector optronics, both of which are also fitted to Rafale C137," Dassault said. The Rafale is the first omni-role combat aircraft, that is to say it can, during the same sortie and practically at the same time, carry out different types of missions, such as ground attack and air defense. Thales, in a news release with Dassault, said among the benefits the RBE2 AESA provides the Rafale are extended range capabilities supporting low-observable target detection; use of new weapon systems, such as the Meteor air-to-air missile; and greater waveform agility for synthetic aperture radar.