Again, as I asked before, why? No good just saying; “the F-35 is better than other western types, because it just is!”, as you seem to indicate.

It is American. I hope that settles any dispute.

you my friend are right like a thong, but thongs can be wrong when worn on the wrong person.

as for AESA aircraft. Yup, no Eurofighter or Gripen in production flying with AESA.. of course the same could be said about any Flanker or Fulcrum.. (MiG-35 is just a testbed like the Gripen NG). But no not true for Rafale. Rafale F4 with AESA currently being produced and delivered since August of this year. 60 of them already ordered.

Rafale my friend, deserves that thong!

I do believe this is the first time I have been compared to a thong!:D

You highlight exactly what I said about AESA- that is, aside from the US, everyone else (well, everyone who has a program that is, Swedes, French, “European collective”, Russians) is pretty close in the race.

Thongs for all,
TR1

India buys Russians systems because they give accesss to programs like Fifth gen fighters that the west may not do. Although its now clear that PAK FA/FGFA is basically a deal like the Su 30 MKI.

The deal is not at all like SU-30MKI. MKI needed many foreign components because the Russian equivalents were utterly lacking in many areas. This had to do with the deplorable state of Russian industry in the 90s. The situation today is non comparable. Indian PAK-FA will not differ from Russia PAK-FA like MKI did from 80s Su-27s.

Apart from that and follow on Su 30 MKI orders all new major purchases are going to the West.

heh, right. India is in the process of reequipping itself with a Russian fighter that will be the most numerous fighter in the inventory, and has clearly committed to another Russian top-tier fighter that will be the future mainstay of the fleet. Yeah, clearly its all going to the west.

People think MRCA is the last fighter pruchase from the west, for better or worse I don’t think it will be. But the T 50 will be the last fighter Purchase from Russia for sure.
Whatever you say

Yes and how many years did it take after that for Russia to field the first production AESA radar,….wait…..they still haven’t !
Wait how many production Eurofighters are flying with AESA? Oh thats right, they arnt! How many grippens? oh thats right, they arnt! How many rafales? oh thats right, they arnt!

It was when you had to point your nose at the enemy fighter or get on his 6’o clock, but its a big disadvantage when a pilot can essentially fire a missile at a target he looks at.
Considering the state of modern sensors used at WVR, the Su-35 size makes absolutely minimal difference.

Cheers,
TR1

And when it comes to wvr in this day and age of HMCS and HOBS missiles the smaller planes (all 3 eurocanards) can spot the Su 35 much earlier and that could be decisive.

Not at all. The difference the size would make in WVR is negligible.

true, we all have biases. Some wear them more blatantly than others…

What’s clear is India is happy with a brand new fighter it has just inducted, and has committed to further purchases of the MiG-29K, a fighter that is quantum leaps above the Harriers it is replacing, and one with considerable growth potential.

Let’s make a potential situation. Lets say your beloved SH selected for MMRCA….considering that India has made it clear it will operate the PAK-FA/whatever variant of the PAK_FA, will you go out and repeatedly claim that India is ALREADY looking past the SH, and what volumes that speaks? No, of course you wouldn’t, and I think I know why :).

Also, what is with your punctuation? Are you trying to sound like a robot? No offense man, but you do not need that many periods.

Only according to you and your severe biases. :p

I respect everyone’s (well, almost everyone’s ;)) opinion on MMRCA, but damn, at the end of the day, I just want them to pick something.

-Cheers,
TR1

I can’t see why India doesn’t simply buy some additional aircrafts from Russia, then get Tejas and PAK-FA and be over with it. Why introduce yet another type and possibly different technology.

Exactly why I find MMRCA to be pointless at this point. Get more SU-30MKIs, or order more Tejas.