Rafale SPECTRA EW Under Fire: French Lawmaker Demands answers After Alleged Failure Against Pakistani Missile

Defence affairs - D.S.A

French Member of Parliament Marc Chavent has formally raised concerns in a written question to the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, citing intelligence from NATO sources and assessments by U.S. defence analysts that the SPECTRA suite failed to detect or jam a PL-15E BVR air-to-air missile launched from a J-10C.

“This engagement raises a major strategic question: the SPECTRA electronic warfare system apparently neither detected nor disrupted an attack emitted in spectra that are now standard for low probability of intercept radars,” Chavent wrote in his formal inquiry.

The air engagement, which allegedly unfolded during a high-intensity 87-hour clash between India and Pakistan, reportedly led to the downing of at least one Rafale multirole fighter, marking what could be the first confirmed combat loss of the platform since it entered service.

According to CNN, the incident was confirmed by a senior French intelligence official, although India’s Ministry of Defence has thus far declined to acknowledge the specific aircraft lost.

In a bombshell interview with Bloomberg in Singapore recently, India’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Anil Chauhan, acknowledged for the first time that the IAF had indeed suffered aircraft losses in the recent Pakistan-India confrontation.

Although General Chauhan did not specify the number of aircraft lost, he confirmed the incident, stating, “The key issue is not whether the aircraft was downed, but why it went down.”

“Numbers are not important,” Chauhan stressed, instead pointing to tactical missteps: “What is good is that we understood the mistakes, corrected them, and within 48 hours launched retaliatory long-range precision strikes with all our fighters.”