F-15SE’s tails are canted 15 degrees, which isn’t much. Canted surfaces don’t reduce RCS as much as zig zag surfaces, and don’t contribute to RCS reduction from the front but only from the side. Thunder Block 2 is assumed to incorporate some RAM like the ones found on J-10B. Pylons increase drag, but don’t increase frontal RCS as much due to their frontal surface areas being very small compared to conformal weapons bays which have much larger frontal surface areas. I estimate Thunder Block 1’s frontal RCS at about a quarter to a half of F-15SE’s frontal RCS and about a half to three quarters of Gripen C’s frontal RCS. 😎

Keeping your assumptions on relative rcs apart, since when did surface area took over shaping as a bigger factor in contributing to rcs ?

What makes you think Thunder’s frontal RCS is not less than F-15SE’s? F-15 is huge and has no DSI to conceal its engine blades. Don’t get me wrong. I love F-15SE, but I don’t think its frontal RCS is smaller than Thunder’s. 😉 Internal weapons bays don’t do much in fact. From the front, air to air missiles have very small RCS, with most of the radar waves reflected back from a single point in the middle. In fact, I would wager that F-15SE’s conformal weapons bays have bigger RCS than the missiles they contain. 😉 Manufacturers can claim a whole lot of stuffs, doesn’t mean they are all true.

F-15SE, one of my fave jets http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn6nx_GGERQ

Look at what boeing did to super hornet, expect greater amount of those measures to be employed on f-15SE.
1. Edge alignment and rcs reduction measures on panels to reduce
2. Canted stabilizers
3. Inlet blocker, ram on inlets, other rcs reduction measures to killl the ripple due to reflection from turbine blades.
4. Weapon bays. Even if the modern missiles do have a low rcs, there are still pylons to take care of. Also you don’t put two low rcs objects in such close vicinity and not expect an emission higher than the combined rcs of both.

Apart from having a reduced RCS there is the “silent” part in the form of reduced emissions and passively sensing threats.

Not sure about LM and JSF, but sukhoi and ef should get one more chance to demonstrate improved capabilities in the fiedls where they fell short. The evaluations for downselect might not represent accurate picture of aircraft standings today.

http://m.economictimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/lca-tejas-to-be-inducted-in-air-force-this-year-drdo-chief/articleshow/12921558.cms

Just wondering, having missed all deadlines in 2011, are they in a position to deliver first serial production units this year?

If the levcons were any larger, I would have been inclined to call it a flying wing. That fuselage looks tiny compared to the ridiculously large wing area.

R-27 has fatter booster which means it has more energy compared to R-77 , translates to longer range/end game energy , it also carries far larger expanding rod warhead.

Not necessarily. Fatter body and larger fins also implies extra drag. Since R-77 is a missile from a later generation and the preferred armament for Russian fighters since the latter part of 90’s, its safer to assume that it is a better missile than R-27. We should wait and see where is this story headed to. I too think that its a deal to extend the life of existing stocks till MiG-29 are upgraded to fire R-77 and Astra.

I can remember watching one of the many Ka-50 prototypes displaying at Zhukovsky during one of the MAKS airshows.

Imagine a V-shaped wineglass – with the Ka-50 pointing downwards along the V.

Then have the helicopter travelling around the rim of the glass (still pointing downwards) – and then the point of V travelling down the runway.

That’s how the Ka-50 was demonstrating its ability to aim the 30mm cannon at a spot on the ground – whilst circling and travelling laterally.

A bit like the spout of a tornado, with the end of the spout being the target – the agility was very impressive.

Ken

Is there any video available for that demo, it sounds so freakishly awesome that I have to see it to believe it !!!

LCH TD-2 seen over Bangalore sky.