Rafale won’t win this now after the recent allegations, the government cannot afford another scam.

The point is Rafale is nearly twice as expensive and comes with expensive weapons. India wants to eventually have about 260 MRCA and for that the Gripen seems ideal.

Best thing would be to do a limited upgrade and increase airframe life and replace it with MRCA.

Yes but if a lower priced contender is in that list, say the Gripen, IAF will find it hard to justify buying the bigger ones.

It’s not about providing top cover for Tornado strikes, but about maintaining a no-fly zone. The Tornadoes can’t do that. Nor can any of the other aircraft which are dropping bombs. Rafale, F-16 etc. don’t stay over Libya on CAP loaded with bombs. They either go in, drop their bombs, then go home, or go in armed only with AAMs & loiter.

Aircraft on bombing raids carry AAMs for self-defence & targets of opportunity. They add to the no-fly zone enforcement, but aren’t the main part of it.

Note that France has sent Mirage 2000D as well as Rafale – & that’s a pure strike aircraft – & Qatar has sent Mirage 2000-5, but they’re only for CAP, not strike.

What’s the point of Multirole/Swing Role then ? Are these planners idiots, why can’t a Rafale for example drop its bombs, fire a SCALP and then do CAP ? I have seen it in configurations where there would be enough AAMs to do so.

Designed for A2G or A2A is not the problem with the typhoon. the problem is it is not yet integrated with enough A2G weapons.

F 15 was meant to be purely A2A, F 15 E is the best A2G aircraft around.

Except that we don’t have enough operational Typhoons to do both what Typhoon & Tornado are doing at the same time.

Then why use the the Typhoon at all ? Don’t think Libya has anything to threaten the Tornado.

Between the Rafale and Typhoon, I would rather have the former. Rafale has certainly proven its Omnirole credentials, while Typhoons don’t have anything A2G with Tornadoes doing the dirty work.