I miss posted I wasnt refering to the F16 comment I was trying to respond to the indian article crticisimg Rafale and the Indian minister speaking out against it

There are other comments by Indian officials, I’m sure you can find them yourself. There is a reason why the US is now lobbying the F-35…

Are these Officials representative or is it like in Britain where somebody with an axe to grind spouts off a twisted tale to a news paper with a Grudge (typically but not limited to the gruniad).

eg a possible scenario
Ministers Question – Is it Possible that we will go back to F35 B if conversion to C is expensive and in light of recent tail hook problems-

MOD Answer – Blah Blah long winded reply about capabilities, commitment to type etc but including a comment about “obviously continually reveiwing the decision and or process to ensure no more nimrod / fres fiascos.

Minister cherry picks and misquotes to a hack,

news paper head line ” F35C to be swapped back to B as it costs to much to convert the carrier”.

obviously the above is a far fetched example.

Rafale won
now providing it really met the technical requirements and that it genuinly is the cheaper aircraft (and i havent seen a claim that it hasnt) and of course that the competition was corruption free, again no evidence it wasnt,
Then the minister needs to be ignored, clearly he has an agenda, hoping for a localy produced aircraft in his district perhaps or maybe hes an F35 fan.

Undersized radar aperture like other allegedly undersized engines or undersized imagination is a matter of legend, false claim and propaganda that ET fanboys have been telling for years without any substance. The AESA is capable to fully use the meteor envelop and that is the only thing that matter.

Just jumping in because i think this one of those points that causes a lot of bad feeling but may be down to nothing more than a misunderstanding.

The claim is that Typhoon has a larger radar which will translate (assuming all things being equal) into better range.

This appears to be misinterperated into a criticism that the Rafales radar is to small, the truth is that the typhoon has a large radar for its size (I believe a comparison was F15 size Radar F18 sized aircraft).

Im pretty sure the rafales radar size is fairly typical of that sized aircraft.

Possibly because the Maltese (style) cross used on the aircraft and for the Iron cross are not the Swastika. Their usage predates that.

The Swastika is associated with Nazism and as such is banned in germany and numerous other countries.

If we are going to change national flags because at sometime we offended or mistreated another country whilst flying that flag, is there a country in the world that wont have to change theirs

I find very interesting that mrmalaya and Lindermyer ask me to calm down on this thread. My tone is perfectly appropriate and has nothing vindicitive in it.Did I insult any of you? I don’t think so. Did I try to reply to your claims with facts, verified sources? Yes. Did I open a thread and tried to imply things that were untrue ? No, someone else did. I could have opened a new thread with a catching title like “MMRCA – Has the British government tried to bribe the Indians?”, but I didn’t. Even when you guys face a clear evidence, an official statement, you’d rather try to discredit the source than accept it as trustworthy. I can’t fight your blindlessness! 🙂 I have not shown any anti british feelings in my words, so I do not see why you would imply that I am anglophobic, mrmalaya. Mr Lake/jackonico, apart from being a liar, is one hell of a flamebaiter. Problem this thread brilliantly backfired in his face.:diablo:

The scource is a British MP that does not make him official or correct.
In this case i stated i suspect its out of context and offered a logical reason why.

I offered an alternative view explaining how aid often works and why i considered it impossible that there was a direct link between aid and the typhoon.
Your response to that was to (rather insultingly) state that im in denial, you also implied that i was willing to accept anything for typhoon as gospel and anti typhoon as lies.
you did not produce a coherrant argument just restated your position.

Note i think we should withdraw aid from india if they do not want it, particuarly if it really is seen as insulting, as this can only damage future relations. However this has nothing to do with the MRCA deal, please see my previous posts on that subject.

I am willing to accept it was not your intent to be insulting or aggressive, it has dawned on me that you are french (breguet should have been a give away) the manner of your argument is fairly typical.

This is in no way intended as an insult (or ignorant stereo typing) it is my common experience that when offering a different view point a french person can seem rather uncomprimising and aggressive (more so in english as it isnt a first language).

I am still trying to educate the wifey figure that “If that is what you want to believe” is not the same as saying “I disagree and this is why”
There have been many arguments until i got my head round this.

Mind you she cant get her head around the english habit of self depriciation and mock insults.

Knowing british news papers the comments are probably taken widely out of context, I doubt very much aid was given in order to win the contract (that would be bribery) that said I have no doubt it was hoped that aid would show our reliability and so gain political support.
As for the rest of that article most of it is Drivel worthy of Ms kirchiner, other sections quite frankly if they had been written about india would have been met with howls of racism by the very newspapers currently promoting it.

All nations use aid to garner political influence, We all know how political arms deals are.
Providing aid is a way of showing how politically reliable you are.

Many countries give aid but with a lot of strings attatched such as where and how it can be spent.

Japan (used to if it doesnt now) included landcruisers in its aid packages which is how they became so damn common and thanks to the vast amount of NGO vehicles they took over from the landrover in private hands (parts availability), HM Gov missed a trick there

I myself do not have a problem with the concept of people hunting whales (or indeed any animal) for food. Nb excluding endangered species and out of season.
However I do support the ban on whaling because the animals cannot be killed in a humane manner.
Likewise similar barbarities such as cutting the fins off sharks should be banned.

Which leads us to seal clubbing, like everyone else im horrified by the notion that seal cubs were literaly beaten to death. The fact they are clubbed and are young creates a highly emotive issue.

However I have seen the video footage of this taking place and its not beating as such it is generally one instantly incapacitating blow.
So the question is (assuming that it is necassery to cull the seals) what would be the most humane method available and is it the case that barbaric as it seems from the description seal clubbing is it in fact more humane than say shooting.

Note I am not condoning seal clubing it is a point for debate, I personnally couldnt do it.

No british yards submitted a final bid, possibly as the previous government made it perfectly clear production would be in a foreign yard, but regardless if a british yard didnt bid a british yard cant win.

Note though that the winner is a consortium bid BMT design, Koreas (DSE?) build and BAE fit out all the RF stuff