That’s strange as it has ASEA.
That's
AESA...
The original
RBE2 radar in Rafale was a PESA setup [1]; it didn't instantly outperform the lump in the front of Typhoon, whatever the
"elEctr0n1c sCanZ is AWESOMEST!" top trumps brigade would have you believe, but they've since upgraded it to an AESA set (although they don't say what proportion of their aircraft fleet has the new kit).
The full-fat bit isn't AIUI the datalink from the radar to the missile (lots of kit has that now; although originally it was less than you would have thought, if you'd listened to the 1990s manufacturers brochures). The full-fat bit is the datalink from the missile back to the radar. Typhoon and Gripen can both do this (unsurprisingly, because their radars are made by the same firms).
Meteor is an advanced radar-guided, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) that is superior to other missiles of its type. Meteor is a game changer.
www.saab.com
[1]
PESA is basically the same as a mechanically-scanned radar; a GBFO travelling-wave tube, except that all the energy is pumped out through phase shifters rather than being pointed by a big round slotted lump of metal. This means that off-axis performance is limited, but scan speed is better [4]. For reference, the
AN/SPY-1 on those US Navy "Aegis" ships is a PESA system, while the Type 45's "
SAMPSON" is a true AESA [2].
[2]
AESA generally means that instead of one big transmitter/receiver and a lot of phase shifters, there's an array of lots of small transmitter/receivers [3]. So (in theory) you can do all sorts of fun stuff with bits of the antenna, and you don't need all the complicated pipework behind it; hence why they have to mount SPY-1 to the ship's superstructure, but could choose to mount SAMPSON on top of the mast...
[3] The performance of each small Tx/Rx module, multiplied by [all the modules in the array] tells you a lot about the radar concerned; which is another reason why open-source pictures of AESA radars tend to be done with the protective cover in place, so you can't count them... a bigger antenna area also means more Tx/Rx modules, means m0Ar t0TAl p0WeR!, means that because Typhoon has a bigger nosecone than Rafale, it can fit a more powerful radar for similar-performance Tx/Rx modules.
[4] Scan speed isn't the be-all and end-all. You still need to put X amount of energy into each part of the sky, to see if there's anything there; scanning that volume electronically rather than mechanically doesn't really change that requirement, you're still going to need to scan at a set rate as part of your radar's performance. Where it's useful is if you want to flick between
"keep scanning the sky for Biggleski" and
"oh, and could you get some really detailed data on those priority targets, over there".