I never claimed that, when I still stick to my claim that everyone intrested in that capability can refit that. Despite all the advertisement claims about IRST I can not see a rush to do so?! Maybe the military in several countries are not convinced about all the gains really.

The same can be said about EO DAS unless one believes all the advertisement.

Battlefield awareness and being able to see the entire field of battle while at the same time being able to direct units to engage threats is far more important. This is an area where NATO and western airforces have a great lead over the Soviet counterparts and why western aircraft has had so much success on legacy soviet fighters post-vietnam.

Obviously the fact that those legacy fighters were operated in limited number by small countries or by ill equipped and ill trained third world armies had no impact at all.

The airforce that is able to do this will be able to choose when and how to engage. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a f-4, f-15, or f-22, the su-27 will be engaged in a position where it is at a disadvantage.

If you are outnumbered, outgunned and politicaly isolated in the same way Yugoslavs were it doesn’t matter your awareness of the battlefield because the best you can achieve is a lucky shot as some type of moral victory.

Obviously FARS is not kosher as a news source but those fighters that have appeared in Syria must have needed a charter flight from somewhere to the neighborhood as the path of pilgrimage is quite unrealistic.

I’ve the feeling that many of those foreign “freedom fighters” have been airlifted from Lybia after their last’s year tour.

Juicy?

Sarcasm ;).

Gripen NG prefered to the Rafale in Algeria

Both have a lot of political strings attached.

Relations with Morrocco could deteriorate quite fast and after the recent purchases of US aircrafts and tanks an aircraft like Gripen, powered by a General Electric engine, may not be the wiser option for Algeria.

I only know that the f-15 has never been beaten in real combat.

Not really impressive looking at the big picture but at least is less embarrassing than calling “combat proven” to Rafale as Dassault does.