zraver

Look where America meddles, it doe snot do so with Trillion dollar economies. India's in the big leagues now, the US even violated its own laws with the reactor deals. Oh, and India meddles as: well big fish eat little fish.

Tronic

A Mig lover, I see. If it comes with slashed tires, loads of maintainence problems and a poor spares supply; as the earlier Mig-29s we bought came with; well it doesn't make it look too tempting; especially for the boys who will be flying them!

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Nabha Sparasham Deeptam
-Touch The Sky With Glory

BenRoethig

Eurofighter can supercruise at Mach 1.2. The Rafale's M88 is down about 3000lbs of thrust compared to the eurojet 200. Both the typhoon and Rafale are pretty similar since they were designed from the same requirement. Weight and dimensions are almost the same.

Eurofighter advantages:
-A little faster than the Rafale (would probably be negated by an engine upgrade on the rafale)
-An additional two BVRM stations on the forward fuselage
an additional pair of wing pylons
-Wide range of NATO standard weapons opposed to French weapons.

Rafale advantages
-slightly higher range and climb rate (would also be negated by engine upgrade)
-Centerline pylon capable of using systems too wide for the eurofighter like recon or refueling pods.
-outer pylons are wet and can carry larger ordinance than those on the typhoon.
-Naval Variant.

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F/A-18E/F Super Hornet: The Honda Accord of fighters.

Gun Grape

Nothing will open up a path to US Jamming aircraft. We don't sell those to anyone.

Its the same F404 engine as the Hornet. But upgraded to single engine safety standards, and a little better performance.

60% is made by GE in the US then shipped to Sweden for assembly. That is one of the reasons that Saab has had problems selling the plane. US export restrictions on who can have the engines.

sohamsri

thank you sir. That was very informative.

Adux

GunGrape,

Its the F-414

Gun Grape

No the 414 powers the SuperHornet..

The 404 and its offshoots power the Hornet, Gripen and even your LCA

FullTank

The final call should be between the Rafale and the SHornet.

Eurofighter - too expensive

Mig -35 - shouldnt be even in the race.

F-16/Gripen - Single engine. F-16 available to pakistan.



But the Rafale would still be slightly ahead of the Shornet on the following points in the Indian scenario.

1) Infrastructure already present due to the Mirages
2) Close to the LCA program due to links with Dassault, Safran.
3) Politically less controversial. The left is likely to anyways cause delays incase the Shornet is selected.
4) Meets the requirement fully since its designed for both the roles without favouring one over the other. Remember that the mirage was anyways the first choice of the IAF and the Rafale is the natural progression.

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God is a cruise missile.

BenRoethig

Gripen NG is f414 powered

Gun Grape

But, thats not being offered and the NG is a tech demonstrator not a "For sell" aircraft

Saab displays new flying test platform for Gripen

sohamsri

you are right about the pros of rafale.

But i dont think the mig is so bad that it should not be in the race.
MIG-35 IS GOOD FOR GOD'S SAKE ! nobody understands that.

I know that buying the mig 29 was suicidal for India, but thats exactly what the mig-35 is learned form of.

They have fixed all the problems of the mig-29 and added a lot of bonuses.

Let me remind you, in the indo-pak kargil war, the migs were successful against the f-16s. Although the pakistanis suggest otherwise(obviously).

The mirage was very useful for escorting the jaguars.

kuku

independent choice?
Saab - Technology for a Changing World - Gripen for India – the independent choice

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cheers

sohamsri

Seriously....CHEERS !

That is an excellent overall package ! I hope the government doesnt ignore them just because its single engined.

kuku

I drink old monk rum, neat, so still want to share a peg.

They do not seem anything like a independent choice (in comparison to say the French option).

I do not know the AF will look at the whole thing
- Transfer of technology, AESA radar, Preformance (engine thrust- maneuverability etc.), EW suite, Weapons inventory, Net centric capability, Range-payload etc. etc.
All of this @ cost and political ease.
So its not going to be clear untill it is clear, and a lot of time to go i just hope they finish the MMRCA early its not like i know something the AF does not know.

What is better multi role combat aircraft, a air defense fighter that has added ground attack capability or a strike fighter with air to air capability, or does that even matter in these multi role aircrafts?

126-180 Rafale/typhoon might be a bit overkill in the Afghanistan/Bangladesh/Bhutan/Burma/China/Maldives/Nepal/Pakistan/Sri-Lanka type of a neighbourhood, and a F-16 type of a plane in good numbers should do the job for the AF, until the Chinese and Russians come up with magically produced 5th gen planes then the place might see another little race.

Gun Grape

I stand corrected.

But if that is their "offer" why didn't they send one to India? They sent C's and D's.

Thay would be like Boeing offering Superhornets but sending c/d to the "Flyoff" with a note saying "The ones we want you to buy are much better"

No wonder Saab has not done good in foreign sales.