Customer does not rule in 21st century. See Gorshkov, IL-76 & PLAAF.
Iran & S-300.
FGFA or whatever design will be frozen pretty soon and it wont be modified much more than current PAK-FA. after all for $300m how much you can modifiy it. and than there will be licensing cost of the same thing and than weopon tests.

I think $300 mil is only for preliminary design changes. There should be a lot more following up for testing and further integration of Indian/third party components.

http://ria.ru/defense_safety/20111025/470479032.html

What weaknesses did he have in mind that the Indians are not aware of?

Isn’t that what trials are for ? Besides I love the irony of a Russian arms manufacturer talking about India’s love for American weapons :rolleyes:

Thanks for that. Is opening the bids a waypoint that would be announced? I don’t suppose it matters much since no information about what is contained in the financial bids would be released, I imagine, until they had been scrutinised.

Am I right in thinking that the remaining steps left are:

– open bids (say November)

– check/evaluate bids (say 1 month needed)

– start contract negotiations with the supplier offering the lower cost (say 1-3 months needed)

– sign the contract (Q1/Q2 2012?)

My guesses as to time required to reach contract signing.

ACM, on IAF day, said that bids would be opened in 10 days and winner declared in 3 weeks by mid november. Hopefully the contract would be signed before year end.

Given that the F-35 is a 9g airframe, (which the F-18 is not even close to with a 7.6g limit) and the F-35 is faster than the F-18 with weapons, I think it’s pretty accurate.

Well Spudman, i am disappointed at the ratings given for Typhoon. I sort of hoped for MMRCA like trials. I know SH is no slouch but typhoon getting knocked out and SH still in race doesn’t really sound the best “technical” short list to me.

Here is a graphic from the above Nikkei article (thanks Slowman for providing).

The first category is “Operability/Maneuverability”, the second category is “Industrial Participation”, the third category is “Relations with the US”.

Biggest surprise for F-35 haters is that it placed the F-35 above the F-18 and Typhoon in “Operability/Maneuverability”

Obviously when you couple operation capability and maneuverability together, it will give you a distorted picture. No one, even the most avid f-35 haters, doubts the operation capability of f-35 over the other two.

PS: I would absolutely LOVE to see a similar chart for South Korean competition :p . That. would make a really nice chart for a f-35 hater 😀

I was watching this NGC feature on Tejas.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hvoZ0wfQ6Q

At 3:20 in the video, after baking, the composite panel is treated intensively with water jets. Does anyone have an idea on what that treatment is for ?

Situation is yet not clear but helicopter in question may have been Indian Cheetah helicopter which drifted into Pakistani air space because of bad weather.

The chopper drifted across LoC due to bad weather, was carrying a JCO, 2 Majors and a Colonel.