Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard

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Dassault Super Étendard
Image:Super-Etendard 1.jpg
A Super Étendard ready for catapult launch off the flying deck of the Clemenceau (1997-07-16).
Type	Attack aircraft
Manufacturer	Dassault-Breguet
Maiden flight	1974-10-28
Introduced	June 1978
Retired	2010 (scheduled)
Primary users	Aviation Navale Argentine Navy Iraqi Air Force
Number built	74

The Dassault Super Étendard is a French carrier-borne strike fighter in service with the French and Argentine Navies. A small number were also flown by the Iraqi Air Force for a brief period during the Iran-Iraq War.

It is a development of the earlier Étendard IVM that was originally to have been replaced by a navalised version of the SEPECAT Jaguar, the Jaguar M, until this plan was stalled by political problems.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

At the time of the Falklands War, Argentina had taken delivery of five Super Étendards and five Exocets. All five of the missiles were used during the conflict, with one missile destroying HMS Sheffield and one the supply ship MV Atlantic Conveyor (the Exocet that damaged HMS Glamorgan was a land-launched version).

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 to great success against Iranian tankers in the Persian Gulf before being returned to France in 1985.

From 1991, the original Étendard IVMs were withdrawn from French service, and the Super Étendards underwent continuous modernisation through the 1990s to enable them to use the latest generation of laser-guided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. The SEM also flew strike missions in Operation Enduring Freedom.

All Super Étendards are expected to be retired from French service by 2010, to be replaced from 2006 onwards with a navalised version of the Dassault Rafale.