During Aero India 2009 the French thought they did not have much chance in India and the Brazil deal was in the bag..so decided not to bring Rafale to India. Some top French offical said those who wanted to see Rafale should come to some European airshow.

Fast forward two years and the Rafale is coming to Aero India 2011. The much tainted MRCA competiton still not giving any signals about a front runner, Dassault is humbled at the uncertainity over two deals that they thought were in the bag (UAE and Brazil).

Time to pull the rabbit out of the hat and give India an offer they cannot refuse ?

I think he was more taking a well deserved jab at all the OTT US ‘stealth is OMFG AWESOMESOURCE!!!1111!!’ hype when they were the only ones with a stealth fighter.

Now that someone else has also got a stealth fighter, suddenly the US is dancing to a different tune. Reminds me of the old spear and shield story. 😀

For once I agree with you 😀 All of a sudden stealth is easily beatable.

May be it is Dilma’s way of coming out of Lula’s shadow and establishing herself as her own person ?

Can We put the Taurus not on offer thing to bed now ?

I told you its not SAAB but MBDA who offers the armaments for the Gripen.

MBDA to display missiles for Indian Armed Forces at Aero India 2011

For the Indian Air Force MMRCA missile solutions, MBDA is displaying Meteor, Dual Mode Brimstone, Taurus KEPD 350 and SCALP/Storm Shadow. MBDA is offering them for the three European aircraft options lined up for the IAF’s MMRCA competition, Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon and Gripen.

The concept of LCA is good. The plane is beautiful. And there should be not a lot of discussion who made it and where the parts came from. Neither should the IAF degrade the plane. As any other project it takes time, money and sweat to see a plane fly. There are no ideal situations. Let us see how it evolves to mark 2. I have seen F16A and Gripen in the beginning. We cannot compare them what they are now. Why do we expect LCA To become Gripen NG or Block60 F16? Give the people some credit before asking impossible results.

I agree with you 100% the project has suffered from IAF shifting goalposts. But some posters claiming it to be on par or superior to the Gripen does not help it case either.

f 16.net has a lot of former pilots and people in the know. That site is closely monitoered by the U.S authorities for potential leak of classified data as well. Hence to dismiss every user there as a fanboy is ludicrous.

I think the IAF sukhois carry various Russian anti ship missiles.

US now sets eye on $1.4bn contract for attack copter deal

The notification even lists out what India ”will request” as part of the ”complete package” worth around $1.4 billion. Apart from the 22 Apaches, it includes 812 AGM-114L-3 Hellfire Longbow missiles, 542 AGM-114R-3 Hellfire-II missiles, 245 Stinger Block I-92H missiles, 12 AN/APG-78 fire-control radars and the like.