2007, eh? How so much has changed since then.

Not much as to Multirole to become A2A only.

But in 2007 with lovely Bush in charge India was edging towards American jets. If he was still in power now we would have had SH winning the thing.

[QUOTE]

Why? We know which companies are trying to provide weapons for upgraded Mirage, Jags, LCA…, we even know that Hellfire was offered for Rudra and LCH why should they hasitate just for MKI?
And the point was, that any company can offer us weapons and techs for any fighter, but it still requires government approval, especially when it is about western weapons on RUSSIAN fighters!
So far we see IAF requesting infos about European weapons, which are directly related to the MMRCA finalists, while the media is speculating about them and MKI.

Why not ! The only objection if any should arise from Russians and not Europeans. The Europeans will be happy to sell Meteor to integrate with any platform in IAF service. IIRC its the MBDA guys who said it can be used with various fighters in the IAF. 😀

A role which Rafale can do as well as the Typhoon. The A2G maturity is just a bonus.

Again, not from IAF/MoD officials! Any company can offer anything, in theory US companies can also offer AIM 9X, AIM 120D, JSOW, SLAM-ER for MKI, but we all know that the US government will not allow it and that IAF has never asked for it.

IAF/MoD are unlikely to comment on it till the very last unless some journos ask questions about it.

U.S has nothing to do with India being offered the Meteor. As per norm what is not cleared at a governmental level is NOT offered by any U.S companies to India. And if India selects the system or if its near selection then the congress is notified and approval is sought.

IIRC the Aim 9-x was considered for the Jaguar DARIN III upgrade as well but the ASRAAM was chosen.

Please do not confuse the USG policy with U.S Congress approval.

As for Astra I doubt the first version of it will enter operational service in numbers.

Don’t fall on bad reports of the media, there was never a confirmation that IAF is looking for METEOR, Storm Shadow/Scalp, or even Brimstone for the MKI! Even the quoted part of the article is just saying, that MBDA got an RFI from IAF for the missile, which is true:

http://livefist.blogspot.com/2011/03/iaf-wants-long-range-standoff-strike.html

But the whole idea that they will integrate them on MKI is just based on the media. Infact, it would be a silly decision to integrate all these weapons only on a single plattform and make IAF completely dependent on them. The minute MKI would get grounded for any technical reasons, IAF will not even half as powerful anymore and Kargil showed them how important it is to have alternatives to the Russian fighters.
No matter if Rafale or EF wins, IAF wants to use it in deep strike missions with cruise missiles for sure, so that has to be one of the prime capabilities. EF can do it only in theory so far, but with Indian funding anything is possible for the EF and we might end up with an EF, Storm Shadow and CFTs (without EF is useless in this role) although it will need a lot of time. But I wouldn’t bet on that. 😉

There were other reports quoting the MBDA officials that Meteor is on offer for the Su 30 MKI.

IMO that is the game changer :cool:. Su 30 with 10 Metoer + 2 R 73 😀

The biggest incentive for Turkey to end the issue was EU membership now that does not look attractive anymore.

Black-ops.