* For over 40 years, one the mainstays of the Aeronavale, the
French Navy's air arm, has been the Dassault "Etendard" and
"Super Etendard" carrier-based single-seat strike fighters. This
document provides a history and description of the Etendard and
Super Etendard. * In 1953, NATO issued a requirement designated
"NATO Basic Military Requirement 1 (NBMR-1)" for a "light weight
tactical strike fighter (LWTSF)" that would be fitted with four
12.7 (0.50 caliber) millimeter Browning machine guns, would be
easy to maintain in austere conditions, and could operate from
unimproved front-line airfields. The Armee de l'Air (ALA), the
French air force, had a requirement along much the same lines,
but wanted a twin-engine configuration and armament of twin DEFA
30 millimeter revolver-type cannon. Officials of the French
Dassault aircraft firm decided to design an aircraft for each
requirement, with the two types sharing common features and
technology. The single-engine machine for the NATO requirement
was originally des