[2023] Super Etendard: Thirsty For Battle

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

The Super Etendard is a fast and maneuverable aircraft that can be configured for all types of combat: ground strikes as well as air combat. This interesting aircraft will appear in the French research tree in the upcoming “Sons of Atilla” major update!

Super Etendard, strike/naval aircraft, France, rank VII
Features:

• High-thrust, but non afterburning engine.
  
• Good maneuverability.
  
• Targeting system.
  
• Great arsenal.

The Super Etendard is an excellent new attack aircraft for France, featuring guided weapons which are an immensely useful addition! This aircraft is a modified version of the popular Etendard IVM, which you may be familiar with, and will appear in the upcoming “Sons of Attila” major update. Let’s see what else it has to offer!




Developed as a modern carrier-based attack aircraft, the Super Etendard received some major improvements: these include a new radar as well as precision weapons. Thanks to the addition of the SNECMA ATAR 8K50 Power Plant, as well as having a low take-off weight, the Super Etendard is rather powerful, and therefore will become one of the fastest and most dynamic aircraft with a non-afterburning engine when it arrives in the game! Better yet, with its well-designed airframe, the Super Etendard is capable of withstanding very high speeds.




Diving into the main differences between the standard Etendard and the new Super Etendard, which is its expanded armament capability. Thanks to the addition of a targeting pod, the Super Etendard can use up to 4 x GBU-12 Paveway II bombs. In light of that, dropping these bombs from long distances is easy, thanks to the targeting pod’s excellent zoom and laser guidance. Moving onto air-to-air combat capability: instead of AIM-9B missiles, the Super Etendard features the Matra R550 Magic 1 missile, which you may be familiar with from the Mirage series: they are maneuverable and are excellent at short-range air combat encounters! In addition to that, the arsenal of unguided weapons — rockets and bombs — are controlled by a ballistic computer. Unlike the previous Etendard version, the Super Etendard can also carry countermeasures, having more than 200 in total. Besides that, the same guns remain in the form of 2 x 30 mm DEFA 552A cannons, which have no problem destroying lightly armored vehicles, but on the other hand, only have 125 rounds per gun.



The dynamic and easy to handle Super Etendard will be waiting for you in the French research tree in the upcoming “Sons of Attila major update. The update is coming soon, so keep an eye on the news!