[Video] AV-8B Vs Super Étendard: former SEM pilot explains how to dogfight against the Harrier Jump Jet

‘I was wingman, flying the #2 SEM [Super Etendard Modernizé], and we got the chance to perform an ACM DACT mission,’ ‘Ate’ Chuet, former Super Étendard pilot.

During the Falklands War, the Harrier faced the Super Étendard… But they never got to dogfight.

Many years later two Super Étendards from the French Navy trained in dogfighting against an Italian Navy AV-8B, as former Rafale and Super Étendard instructor pilot ‘Ate’ Chuet explains in the video below (be sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel for more interesting videos).

‘The 2v1 HUD footage comes from a training mission off the coast of Italy,’ Chuet told to The Aviation Geek Club.

‘I was wingman, flying the #2 SEM [Super Étendard Modernizé], and we got the chance to perform an ACM DACT mission. I got a shot on the AV-8 after he went in a great shooting position on my lead before that. You could expect 1 SEM and 1 AV-8 down in a case like that.

‘Currently I am flying for a major Canadian company and I decided to go full bilingual on the channel, and as a former SEM pilot wanted to share some of the missions I flew,’ Chuet pointed out.

The Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard was a French carrier-borne fighter bomber aircraft.

The aircraft is an advanced development of the Étendard IVM, which it replaced. The Super Étendard first flew in October 1974 and entered French service in June 1978. French Super Étendards have served in several conflicts such as the Kosovo war, the war in Afghanistan and the military intervention in Libya.

The Super Étendard was also operated by Iraq (on a temporary lease) and Argentina, which both deployed the aircraft during wartime. Argentina’s use of the Super Étendard and the Exocet missile during the 1982 Falklands War led to the aircraft gaining considerable popular recognition. The Super Étendard was used by Iraq to attack oil tankers and merchant shipping in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq-Iran War. In French service, the Super Étendard was replaced by the Dassault Rafale in 2016.

Argentina has received five former French Navy Super Étendards last year and they are currently undergoing engine testing.