Since the Navy’s biggest ships today are 4100 ton frigates I suspect it will be a while before they have a carrier air wing.

A broadbrush estimate:

Because Gripen is smaller than Typhoon or Rafale, while things such as pilots, radar and weapons are the same size, something has to be traded off. Both twins will do rather better at “swing role”, carrying four or more AAMs, A-G weapons and enough gas to take them somewhere. I suspect that Rafale has substantially better range and Typhoon is faster and more agile at supersonic speed.

But then there is that 2x difference in operational cost, and all that it implies in terms of reliability, availability and deployability.

I never have owned a Mercedes but I have owned used “prestige” brands. It was an educational experience, at least for the mechanic’s kids, whom they helped put through college.

Oblig – Sleek is not synonymous with slender…

I too noticed the lift at take-off and landing. It was just about equal to the airplane’s weight, plus or minus a bit.

Nifty ladder, a bit like the retractable running-board on an upscale SUV. My S2000 doesn’t have a retractable running board. There is a reason for that.

That looked like a hell of a lot of aerobraking on the landing roll.

https://www.scribd.com/doc/263080737/Pragmatic-Rafale

Interesting article…

Obviously, ten years old – and when you stack it up against the piece cited by Halloweene, it’s rather obvious that to state “RBE2-AESA can/cannot do A,B or C” is silly and unfounded. If you want to use the radar for EW it is a matter of telling it what trons to squirt out where, which is mostly S/W. The limitation may be bandwidth, but that applies to anybody until a new generation of AESA comes along.

Ability to go m1.6 with 2xAAMs & 2x2k bombs – Seriously, why would you do that? Way to end up screaming towards your target after bomb release while running rapidly out of gas for egress.
Ability to go maintain m1+ speed in dry thrust while combat configured – This is not confirmed for the F-35
Ability to carry 6x2k bombs – So how far will the F-35 (or anything else) go with this load?
Ability to carry 14xAAMs – Completely unrealistic and indicative of profound ignorance.
Directional LPI Data links – Yes, the F-35 needs this heavy and complex system, even though it is useless for comms with anything except another F-35
Automatic sharing of data – Undefined and as yet inoperative
Fully Fused Avionics – Buzzphrase, undefined
Middleware-based Avionics – Buzzphrase
IIR MLD/MAWS – Not selected by customer but could be backfitted (in pylons if necessary)
Automatic BDA – Hardly decisive, depends on low-rez EODAS
Track all airborne objects in WVR battle-space – Puff claim.
HMDS – JHMCS since 2003
SATCOM – Available option
Internal FLIR/IRST – EOTS is not IRST equivalent
EW via AESA – Sure about that? In 2018?
F-22 class LPI AESA – So what? Not required.
AESA connected to ESM – meaning what?
Pre-Wired for NGJ-Class pods – Define
All avionics & stations fiberoptically connected – F/O of decreasing importance given performance of wire these days
STOVL ops – Well, no.
Austere ops – Yeah, right.
Automated logistics system – No, and TFFT
In-Ship training systems – What does this MEAN?
Fully Funded Post-SDD development program – Er, AESA, Block 2…

Newsflash: fighters are expensive.

Air forces universally prefer to buy from a nation where they know both the military and the industry. When you have officer exchange programs that have been in place for decades, it’s a huge reassurance factor. Aside from Pakistan, nobody has that kind of relationship with China.

Then there is the tiny problem that not only has nobody (except Pak) had a long industrial support relationship with PRC, but that so far the J-10 engine has been Russian. Russia and China have a snit and you have a force of supersonic gliders. And if China was serious about exports and had a nice shiny AL-31-equivalent engine ready to go, it would be on the stand at Zhuhai.

It would of course be unheard of for a politician to say things for political reasons. However, anyone with half a brain knows that Gripen-for-Argentina discussions would be premature even if there was reality behind them.

Nonresponsive, and therefore ignored.

Cue whine from Hops “Oh you’re walking away from the discussion”.