Hi Sintra,

As BArcher has pointed out, there are varying figures re. the RSA Tiffy deal. However, going with your figures, it still works out at about $ 9+ billion for 72 a/c or about $ 125 million per unit. The Israeli JSF deal is certainly expensive, but still only marginally more than the Tiffy – $ 144 million per a/c. And they get a full VLO bird in that price. Tempting.

Hi

When the contract was signed the 4,43 Billion Pounds were equivalent to 8,86 billion US$, today those 4,43 billion pounds are equivalent to 7,24 billion billion US$, the Indian contract will be signed till December this year. To compound the dificulty in trying to get any meaninfull number, EADS is leading the Eurofighter offer (and that means Euros), bloody confusion.

Cheers

Might not be such a bad idea imho, and Shukla despite his penchant for the JSF, might be on to something. There is very little chance that the Rafale/EF will fit in the stated budget – $ 10.2 billion for 126 units sounds really low. IIRC, the RSA Tiffy deal was for about the same price but got only 70 a/c.
USS.

Check the numbers, the RSAF deal involved 72 Typhoons for 4,43 billion Pounds. On the other hand the Israeli JSF deal involves 19 fighters for 2,75 billion US$ being delivered in the same time frame that you have proposed.

First off, is that figure adjusted for inflation? A follow on order for the next 100 Rafales placed in 2016 may have a substantially higher cost than a similar order placed today. How would one realistically compute figures for that?

Unless I lost something in translation the document doesn’t specify whether the amount has been expended or is planned.

Secondly, your figures aren’t exactly positive either.

Lets take it for argument’s sake, to be as you said.

€40 billion = $57.6 billion.

Assuming no inflation occurs and the full complement of 286 aircraft is ordered (neither of which are set in stone), the acquisition cost including development works out to be approximately $200 million/unit.

That’s still a good $56 million more than the UK’s Eurofighters (the other EF members have spent slightly less per unit).

Look again, you are mixing currency, 20,2 billion POUNDS are not 23 billion USD.

Superior bombing capabilities of the Typhoon may be a bit mad to claim, as of now it must be said

Too much scotch in the Phoon PR dpt lately…

IMHO, there are more useful datapoints publically available about Rafale’s performance, while Typhoon tends to benefit from “marketing” spin with no supporting datapoints. Perhaps this reflects a different PR culture, but definitely the lower level of transparency and higher level of spin coming from the Typhoon partners is frustrating, and inevitably will continue to sow doubts about its actual performance.

The recent NAO “Management of the Typhoon Project” document makes anything that the French “Ministere de la Defense”, the “Senat” or the “Cour des comptes” liberated on the RAFALE program positively obscure.
AFAIK there´s no equivalent document released by any French official source since the begining of the RAFALE project.

So there were no AIM-120 firings from Czech Gripens! Thanks.

AFAIK, there were at least one shot in November 2008, precisely at Vidsel.

The RAF has a dedicated SEAD Platform??

No, it has a dedicated SEAD weapon, the Alarm.

Cheers