I would take Phalcon over wedgetail any day of the week.

btw, Is there an Indian Domestic program for AWACS/Elint platforms? or it is all Russian/Israeli/ buy-American? ?

Yes there is the DRDO-CABS AWACS on ERJ 45 platform. But these are much smaller birds which would supplement rather than take over from the Phalcons.

As for the C-17 I was saying as they augment the airlift fleet, India may be able to use one of their IL-76 (send them to Israel) for conversion.

Some have suggested that IAF is interested in larger platforms for the Phalcon like the IL-76 compared the Gulfstreams etc on offer by Israel.

So in case of us running out of IL-76 what platform would be ideal ?

The commonality with M2K/Rafale I can only see in the A2A missiles. I would rather hope that the Meteor will be part of any Rafale deal and not the MICA.

By the way is the Rafale cleared for any other IR/Heatseeking AAM than MICA IR ?

Parlay what about MIG 31 BM cockpit ?

No the more important question is would India want Russia to partner in another fifth gen programme.

India likes to tag along with Russia when the programme is mostly Russian, PAK FA/MKI/Brahmos etc. But it always prefers West/Israel when it comes to Joint Ventures developing something on an equal basis etc.

LCA = Western Engine/Consultancy, MR-SAM/Barak 8 = Israel, SR-SAM – Europe. etc.

Typhoon is more like Eagle, while Rafale is more like a Hornet.

A rather damning comparison for the Rafale that.

During the technical trials it was no surprise that the Typhoon performed best in these conditions; I mentioned a few weeks ago (quoting from a hard copy of a source, not my personal words) that the Typhoon was the only fighter to perform take-offs, perform a display then land with a full A/A and drop tank load while only operating with one engine, in the conditions mentioned above.

As corrosion keeps reminding us at this point the technical bits may not matter & only L1 does.

Maharajpur can handle upto 150 Mirages! Wow.

Wasted capability don’t you think ?