Quadbike, did you read the whole article? Because it shows some issues with Gripen too, for example Taurus seems not to be on offer, also Saab wants to offer Swedish airforce Gripen as a stop gap to fill numbers, but that will be Gripen C/Ds only. Not to forget the important issue of Sweden
Taurus is not on request and not on offer. I think it would be the same with the SCALP/Storm Shadow wrt to the Rafale and Typhoon. These are expensive weapons and purchase have to be made outside the scope of MRCA.
which basically means, if there will be another Indo – Pak, or even Indo – Chines conflict, Sweden will not provide techs, or weapons anymore. What’s the worth of Gripen when we can’t use it in war times, or didn’t get the neccesary support when we need them the most? These fighters are not meant to showcase them only, like some Arab countries do it, so this is a cruicial point that makes it even more difficult for the Gripen, if the induction of LCA minimised the chances anyway.
So is it with every other fighter. The French and Russians may provide in case of an Indo Pak war, and the Americans in an Indo China war, global norm is that you don’t supply weapons when two countries are in conflict. We need our own fighters with our on engines and weapons to get out of this situation.
I think that’s a never ending story, but in regard to the topic, the question should be which fighter suits and offers more to Indian forces, EF, or Rafale?
Because then both sides have to compare their fighter not against each other, but to the capabilities Indian forces already have, or lack.
The LCA MK2 will be capped at 83+40 MK1 will not be enough to meet the lower end of the IAF. India cannot afford to have the rest of the fighters be twin engined bahemoths, hence the Gripen or the F 16 is a sensible choice for the MRCA.
The good performance of Rafale during ATLC against EFs, might be less important for IAF, than the facts that it offers way more commonality to present IAF fleet, eases training (pilots and ground crews), because of the vast experience with Mirage 2000s, or could be inducted way earlier then the EF.
With the Mirage upgrade Rafale is bound to have weapons commonality with it. Its still too expensive to buy and upgrade.
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