I’d love the Rafale to fly in swiss colours, but sadly I don’t expect any fancy camo from our neighbours.

We have to sell (give, considering the current context) some to Greece for that.

Nic

The UAEAF do some rather snazzy colours. 🙂

Which would be a good reason to take Rafale, since it’s clearly more combat proven in all kinds of roles, has it’s AESA ready today, not only in development stage, just like the naval version is operational and proven. You are not helping the EF here. 😉

Thats what I more or less said…(But overall, 100,000+ hours flown ‘vs’ 60,000+ hours flown & they’re not just up there going round in circles, do the math) You must that bit and; ‘they’re also interested in being a part of a programme and learning from an aircraft as its being developed’. and that bit too.

Its very much about gaining experience & know how etc for the Indians. So like I say, both are fine here.

But not in a similar way, because the French companies are more involved in India in terms of licence production under ToT, JVs or even co-developments, which are important points. They have good experience in these fields which might be an advantage.

And the British alone are more involved in projects in other ways for India than France are. Same again, both are fine here. 😉

And as I say; both countries have have a healthy relationship with India…Which is always a good start.

The Rafale is well advanced no doubt about it, certainly more mature than the Typhoon in the A/G department at this point in time. However, ironically, overall the Typhoon is more mature as in in-service with roughly the same numbers, 100 or so for each type and 100,000+ hours flown for Typhoon and 60,000+ for Rafale as of around the time of the Paris Air Show this year.

However, the Rafale will still need various upgrades to keep it up to date (and it very much needs them if they’re serious about exports) just like any other aircraft. I’ve searched around for news on the Rafale & I haven’t came across much, it’s mostly about the ‘going ons’ in the Brazilian competition & what other news its been mentioned in is what its sharing with the Typhoon, obviously usually the likes of India, Japan, Malaysia etc but nothing in terms of upgrades & enhancments & what not. Very little about it alone.

News from various sources is always a good thing & I’m rather surprised that Dassault haven’t been as optimistic as, I’m sure, many people would have liked. At the end of the day it’s only showing a keen interest to potential customers – always a good thing.

It must be pointed out that; India are interested in learning from an aircraft that has already matured, but, it must also be pointed out they’re also interested in being a part of a programme and learning from an aircraft as its being developed. So both are fine here.

Sure, Dassault have a big presence in India with the likes of the Mirage M2K upgrades & various other projects, Ouragen, Mystere etc and also with other projects in the past. But then so do the likes of BAE Systems, or British in general with the likes of the Jags and Hawks and past links with the likes of the Hunter, Canberra, Vampire, Spitfire, Tempest etc and you just need to take a look at BAE Systems’ page to see what other projects they’re up to with India – strangly the Typhoon is a related link on that particular page. So obviously both, or all countries I should say, have a healthy relationship with India.

Eurofighter’s campaign in India might be German led but theres a lot of British influence going on there, too.

Theres a piece in the recent edition of Combat Aircraft Monthly’s News section concerning the F-35. (Theres also an article about the F-35 but haven’t got round to reading it yet.)

It states that; ‘Australia says F-35 buy could be at risk!’

‘Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith has cited program delays and cost hikes as reasons behind his department’s decision not to guarantee Australia’s F-35 buy’.

Hmmm maybe I am. But, there just seems a lot of news coming out all of a sudden when theres a huge deal due to be announced any time now – coincidence maybe. When was the last time we heard any news concerning upgrades for the Typhoon was released? Four, five or even six months ago maybe? (Sooner?)…

Ah well. Its getting some quite serious upgrades anyway.

Next generation encryption technology developed by Cassidian is fitted into the Eurofighter. Encryption is a critical cyber security technique to ensure mission data is securely exchanged between friendly forces.

Eurofighter Typhoon will be the first aircraft in the world to be equipped with next generation encryption technology developed by Cassidian with support from Raytheon Systems Ltd. The full electronic key management system will be delivered shortly for integration into the platform and will be a major step forward for the management of multi-crypto platforms, potentially reducing the key loading process from one hour to less than one minute on a daily basis.

http://www.defpro.com/news/details/27690/?SID=44df5b2c294a64ed015f295d57c90c88

another point of view obviously pro greek and with less credibility :

edit with correct link

http://www.defencegreece.com/index.php/2011/07/review-greek-participation-in-tlp-2011-at-albacetespain/

Sounds awfully like the nonsense the PAF came up with a few months ago. There is a bit of a pattern emerging though; Theres a high possibilty the Indians will order the Typhoon = The Pakistanis claim they owned a bunch of RAF Typhoons (that weren’t there) with their F-16s. Maybe trying to put India off…

There could be a chance Turkey might put an order in for some Typhoons = Greece come up with a story that the Typhoon didn’t stand a chance against the F-16…

What we need now is China claiming the Typhoon didn’t stand a chance against their SU-27s in an attempt to discourage Japan.

In other news:

Engineering support services company Babcock has been awarded a further contract to provide its decoy-dispenser units for the Eurofighter Typhoon, a new-generation multi-role combat aircraft.

Under this contract, Babcock will supply parts and assemble and test more than 200 decoy dispenser units during 2012 and 2013.

Read more: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/sectors/military-and-defence/babcock-to-supply-eqiuipment-for-eurofighter-typhoon/1009947.article#ixzz1XkoBuDqx

Japan is apparently proceeding on schedule with the F-X fighter competition, despite the large economic impact of the recent earthquake and tsunami, and a recent government reshuffle. A Ministry of Defense spokeswoman told Bloomberg news agency that a decision is likely by year-end. Requests for proposals were issued to Boeing (for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet), Lockheed Martin (for the F-35) and Eurofighter last April. Formal responses are due at the end of this month.

http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-news-page/article/japan-proceeding-with-f-x-competition-official-says-31072/