Quote:
Originally Posted by Tronic
You have to think about potential rivals in a real life scenario. I don't think there is any potential foe which the Typhoons are incompetent against. And the MKI is one of its kind in the Super Flanker series, no other country has it; and I think the closest Flanker which comes to the MKI is the Malaysian one, the MKM and even that does not compare well with the MKI in terms of avionics. And moreover, Malaysia has (or will be getting soon) only 18 of these birds.
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Well it compares quite well actually- its pretty much the same, bar most of the Indo/Israeli stuff has been ditched for French & Russian on account of politics and $$ (why use Indian kit when russian kit is available, for exports and the customer can live with it). The radar retains the DRDO radar computers, they are tightly coupled to the Bars & cant be replaced without a lot of bother.
The MKM has a larger HUD (though it may make the cockpit more visible- an oft quoted complaint against bright holographic HUDs), a Navflir from Thales (the MKI doesnt on account of not being intended for low level strike).
On a plus side, since the MKI is being made in India, expect a lot of Indian content - especially electronics to keep appearing on it, and getting upgraded. The RWR is in stage II already, and a high accuracy direction finder has already appeared. The future probably holds even better avionics LRUs, better displays from SAMTEL India, etc etc.