Of course, the case against Gripen could come down to Tejas as well… why on earth would anyone buy Tejas if you are already building a better aircraft in the exact same weight class? A Gripen NG would beat Tejas in essentially every single way, unless you count satisfying Indian nationalism among the criteria…

At least an F-16 would slot in between Tejas and India’s heavier aircraft.

And what would be the price point for a Gripen NG built in India, in your opinion?

Do you really think that is true in terms of air-frame performance? Does the Tejas have the agility, the climb rate, the ITR/STR to compete on equal grounds with such a high performance air-fame like the MIG-29?

I have no doubt it comes closer than the MiG-21 does, in both performance and sensor systems, but….

Well, the ITR will likely match that of the MiG-29 from what we’ve seen in airshow performances as well as from the fact that the IAF’s original ASR for the LCA drew (as hard to meet as it was) the ITR and STR from the best of what both the Mirage-2000 and MiG-29 had to offer. the Tejas met the ITR requirement (which was supposedly to match the Mirage-2000’s specs), but fell slightly short on the STR, which is something that is being optimized.

We know that the MiG-29 has a higher T/W ratio than the Tejas Mk1 and will likely out turn it in a guns-only dogfight, if the Tejas pilot gets into a turning fight. So, I don’t expect the Tejas to be able to out-turn a MiG-29 a slower speeds, which is one of the best in the business when it comes to that. I’m quite certain that in the coming years, the IAF Tejas squadrons will develop tactical doctrines to tackle such high performance fighters like the MiG-29 and Mirage-2000 and also the TVC equipped MKI.

It’s a no-brainer when compared to the MiG-21. The FCS that allows carefree handling alone puts it in a different league than the MiG-21 where a lot of the pilot’s attention went into not exceeding limits.

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First pic of the Astra in IAF livery, if I’m not mistaken.

Likely just a dummy that’s on display. the Astra hasn’t yet been inducted into the IAF, nor has the Brahmos ALCM which is mounted on the centerline hard point.

You make a fair point. I guess I really meant ‘French marketing’ when I said that. Although based on TWR (0.95) and short-arm canard arrangement I doubt the Gripen NG will get past M1.1 on supercruise. As a rule of thumb, dry thrust must be considerably greater than empty weight, for decent supercruise.

Dry Thrust/Empty Weight
Gripen NG – 0.92
Rafale C – 1.02
Typhoon – 1.13
F-22 – 1.11

This is old data. Check the Gripen E brochure that was posted earlier on this thread. The Empty Weight is now shown as 8000 kg. The T/W ratio considering dry thrust and empty weight will be significantly worse considering the actual Empty Weight.