Fine but we still don ‘t know how much it ‘s gonna cost to start with !
Then , maintenance , maintenance …

reportedly lesser than SH, Harriers, any twin engined legacy fighter

That ‘s true (and still is AFAIK) but there are so many problems , foreseen and unforseen (yes) that no-one knows for sure WHAT will be the end product .
Some people on the Net should wake up a lil ‘ bit and ask themselves why after building a gem like the B2 and a pearl like the F-22 , the USA have so much difficulties with the F-35 . Think about it …

Please , don ‘t give me the “they can ‘t make a F-35 priced at half a billion $” because it is irrelevant . The most important factor is why the USA are having such a hard time with the F-35 ?

What they are trying to do with F-35 hardware is well within the limits of what they have done with F-22. Although product developers claims should always be taken with a pinch of salt, but i understand that they are trying to achieve the next level of avionics in F-35. If the EO-DAS if it works as advertised will set new standards for sensors.

I tell you why in my humble opinion :

Sir, your humble opinion screams “BUY RAFALE” at a subconscious level.

The “C” version is the only one you can still bet on .

In pretty safe hands with RN and USN.

The “A” has no futur (if it ever has any)

Large number of countries in western Europe are buying some, along with USAF, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Israel and Turkey. I do see a future.

and the “B” will never work .

Cheers .

If one reads all your posts, one draws the conclusion that none of the fighters made after cold war, or variants of older ones have worked as advertised, except Rafale. You should add “Buy Rafale” after cheers as your standard signature 🙂

like what? F-35s?

Amen :p

Your `sabotage` story would have more merit if India had offered to fund develpment program of M2K like UAE did with Block 60, but France/Dassault had refused in deference to their other new product (Rafale). I`m not aware that India ever considered doing this, thus it`s disingenuous to complain that OEM`s product offering doesn`t ideally correspond to your needs.

Sorry to bust your bubble sir, India did fund the Mki development in part to get a customized end product, pretty much like UAE f-16 block 60. French missed the bus, twice.

I agree. But that does not fully explain the IN RFI sent to Lockheed , Boeing , Saab etc.

Apart from this , the other motive of this RFI can be to see the availability of the F 35 which can operate from the IAC 1 at a later date.And LM also reportedly responded to that RFI with the F -35.

Probably to check the availability of F-35B in case they feel disappointed by Tejas. People often point out that responding to RFI does not translate into guarantee of sales considering FMS complexities, but no one in senate objected to the LM response to RFI. Which means the coast is clear 🙂

Btw, is IN really interested in operating Mig-29k post 2025 considering IAF will retire Mig-29 by then and Mikoyan really isn’t in such a good shape to carry on with after sales support ?

Get it. A rafale built in India 😀

If only there was a military version of “pimp my ride” :D, but seriously in order to not sabotage Rafale sales, the French did not invest much in newer blocks of M2K (as compared to f-16). IAF would have lapped it up like a starving glutton (because as they found out in Kargil, M2K was “lethal” even with dumb bombs). You can see the influence M2K had on Tejas design and performance parameters. Even in 1995, IAF considered M2K, but went for Flanker because they were getting them at the price of M2K and massive ToT. The whole MMRCA circus happened because French were trying to push Rafale instead of a newer version of M2K. Now consider 270 Mki and a potential 200 Typhoons (if it wins), and you get the idea of the kind of hold French might have had in Indian market had the two opportunities for M2K sales been realized.

There are three quick processes that they have to go through. There is a commercial bid and there is an offset bid, and then there is talk about transfer of technology, what can be done and how it will be done. And, of course, after that, we need a final price, L1, as we call it. Again, as far as L1 is concerned, I don’t think it is sacrosanct because all these things, the offset, the technology, they all will play a very important role. Life cycle costs, these all are very important things.

But the long and short is as of now, it looks like that the Indian government and the Indian Air Force, they are very keen that they sign this at the earliest, this agreement. And I would say that by September this contract should get signed.

http://www.sldinfo.com/?p=19418

Per unit cost : Rafale is believed to be cheaper

ToT: French seem to be bending over backwards on this one, they seem to be really desperate, but one Eurofighter GmbH hasn’t played its cards yet, at least not publicly.

Lifetime costs : Lack of any sort of public data to draw conclusions.

Overall, Rafale seems strong at the moment, Dassault really needs to screw up to lose this deal.

Yes, but not the same way. See the new pic :

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The blanking out of the antenna and the Mirage 2000 test bed seem to indicate that it is the actual, finalized RBE2 AA. No counting TRs on this one.

So that journalists and fanboys can’t mock really low number of modules ?

Edit : Why use M2K as a testbed when Rafale is flying around ?