Please, tell me one single mission that Eurofighter, Rafale or Grippen can do, but an F-15E can’t.

Precisely the “E”? Anti ship.
The “K” is a diferent story.

All eurocanards still use mechanically steered pulse doppler radars, lack of software and attack pods limit many ordnance capabilities, they are not -at present- technological marvel to my eyes; even when compared to good old F-15C or F-16 blk30.

Last time i´ve checked the Dassault Rafale never used “mechanically steered pulse doppler radars”…
And capabilities provided by things like the HEA helmet, the MBDA Meteor, the RBE2 PESA or the EW suites of the heavier Eurocanards for the time being are totaly out of reach of the old “C”´s or Vipers block 30, at least until the USAF upgrades the F-15 fleet to the “Golden Eagle” standard and chooses the AESA set for the Viper.
Now things like the “SH”, “K”, “SG”, “Block 60”, diferent story.

Cheers

Time will tell, specifically 2014/2015 Red = Flag 🙂

You mean 2018/19, right?

TAim-120D/D+

Warn ATK and the Pentagon… :diablo:

1. reduced weight

Not, there´s nothing in the JF-17 that would make 1980 Northrop or GD look twice at it. Just for comparison the slightly smaller Northrop F-20 Tigershark that flew in 1982 was one ton and a half lighter, it also was faster, more agile and had a better climb rate.

2. cool looks

In what planet?! It looks decidedly like a rejection of the 1974 USAF LWF program, and from all the contenders only the Lockheed CL1200 Lancer looked worst than this particular aircraft.

3. ease of construction and no need for regular maintenance

Has if you had access to the PAF reports on maintenance…

4. reduced RCS by hiding the titanium engine blades without sacrificing aerodynamics as in the case of a purposely built engine blocker

Those “titanium engine blades” are stealth indeed, they actually dont exist…
The RD-93 engine blades are not made of titanium.
And most aircrafts out there dont use engine blockers to mask the engine blades, they use serpentine inlets.

While we are at the Typhoon no one seem to bother to mention that the production cost for the program has gonne down again (slightly this time). The total program for the RAF (including the Future Capability programme) for 160 airframes is 18,1 billion pounds.
The JCA (AKA “Dave” AKA F-35B) budget was raided again (its recurrent), this year the UK MOD chopped 366 million pounds, the entire program is budgeted at 2,2 billion pounds.

CM-400AKG beats Air-Brahmos fair and square,

Oh, you had access to the specifications of the seekers/datalinks/etc, of both weapons, did you?
And off course that a 400 kg´s Ashm will be will be much more capable than a 2500 kg´s one…

WTH it doesn’t even need warhead, kinetic energy is enough and an aircraft carrier will be toast. 😉

Undoutebly… The Kinetic energy of a 400 kg´s Ashm flying at mach 4 will undoutebly “toast” a 45000 ton ship. :rolleyes:

If you want to have a very precise idea of whats the real “killing/Cripling” capability of a such a weapon against ships, there are several public descriptions of US Navy RIM-66´s (multiple versions) being used against merchants and oilers on exercises, the results are not spetacular (quite the oposite).

Pretty much, “hurt the economy of the islanders the most we can” seems to have a fair amount of popular support and traction within Argentina these days.

Argentina is really pushing the idea of a transplanted colonial population these days. I believe the old propaganda in Argentina was they were brother Argentines under the jack-boot of British colonial oppression! Argentine troops marching into Stanley in 82 were truly expecting Spanish speaking islanders who would be celebrating their release from British oppression! That the population was entirely English speaking and were not happy at all really shocked them! So now the line is “transplanted population of the colonial occupier” meaning in the eyes of the average Argentine they have no right to talk on the matter.

An absurd scenario really and as Britain holds the high ground in a military sense something which will give them no traction whatsoever with the Islanders. On the other hand the mob loves it in Buenos Aires…

And thats precisely why Galtieri did what he did and Kirchner is doing what she´s doing. In time of internal crisis get an external enemy (but never, ever start a war in those conditions, Galtieri didnt read Niccolò Machiavelli, or if he did didnt payed much atention).

Indeed Tempest414, to regenerate the Argentine armed forces into a state of capability to actually perform a successful amphibious assault on the Falklands would take a decade or more with expenditure beyond what they are prepared to satisfy.

What is more realistic is more limited expenditure to procure systems that harass the Islands and make its defence and general day to day life more expensive. They are already attempting to do this with their economic blockade, so patrol corvettes that attempt to stop all ships for inspection just outside the Falklands economic zone would be one more affordable action. It would require the RN to massively increase its presence to escort vessels in and out of the zone. That increases cost massively for the UK and massively hinders life on the Islands. The Argentine excuse would be they are trying to stop exploitation of resources like oil and the stops would be to insure that no oil industry equipment is getting through. Argentina wouldn’t need a fancy vessel for that just something with Diesel engines, a decent 2D radar and a deck gun plus ribs for the inspection teams. A large number of cheap twin engine MPA would also help in that task as it could spot for the patrol corvette. That causes issues for the Typhoon on MPA as they would have to perform long range intercepts of those MPA to shoo them away. If it is harassment outside the zone then Argentines are daring us to escalate the situation in open waters thus evoking the anger on the UN. Notice Argentina recently did just what I suggested to a couple of Chinese fishing vessels arresting them in international waters.

They could also just stop the Lan Chile flight which again squeezes the economy of the Islanders, along with the cruize ship blockade which Islanders say has hurt the economy.

So to conclude targeted investment to increase the scope of the economic blockade is what worries me most at the moment as it is popular in Argentina, has support from their cronies on the C24 and does hurt the Islanders way of life.

Or in other words “lets hurt economicaly the Islanders the most that we can”.
Great idea, its a fantastic way of winning the hearts of the islands population…
Its entirely idiotical, the only way that a GB government would accept to negotiate the islands with Argentina would be by indication of the islanders (or by the implied threat of overwhelming military force).
After the 1982 conflict, after the example given by Maggie Tatcher, for the foreseable future no British PM would last in power if he accepted to compromise on the Falklands. Even if the has to spend half of the MOD budget.

I’ve been thinking that the FOAS requirement might just be a niche that other nations might need something similar for.

The F-15E will need to be replaced in the not too distant future, and other nations such as Israel, France, maybe Australia, might be in the market for a long-range strike aircraft, something that exists somewhere between tactical and strategic capability.

Since many of these nations will be operating the F-35, and the tech has already been developed, a long-range, much larger version might work? A two man, twin engined F-35, with the existing stealth systems, avionics and engines?

A two man, twin engined F-35 “Theater Striker/Bomber” is a completely new aircraft.
Not going to happen if the Pentagon is not interested, and the Pentagon is not interested.
Such concept, a manned “Theater Bomber” was killed when the study´s for a USAF “2018 interim bomber” (we are talking of something like the F/B-22 “Strike Raptor” from LM or the F/B-23 from Northrop, see bellow) were delayed and transformed into the “Long Range Strike-Bomber (LRS-B) program”, but that one calls for strategic reach.

That particular “Niche” (Theater reach) is being seriously studied by everyone (including the UK MOD), but the multiple programs that are getting into hardware are unmanned (an example, the relatively “simple” GA “Avenger C” has a max endurance of 18 hours).

Cheers