US may face another financial cliff this October ~ So it is really not a good time for USAF to start a new war right now.

The SpAF’s F-18s will reach 35+ years of service life at the time of 2020, without further life extension, they shall have to be retired at that time or even earlier for the safety reason.

And reducing the fighter fleet from 140 to 54 sounds reasonable for a bankrupted european country with more than 25% unemployment rate (and more than 55% unemployment rate for young men) ~ We need more social welfare for saving the the poor and unemployed people’s life !!! Let’s cut the bloody hell and useless defense budget once more !!!!:highly_amused:

Tell me if that scores 571 orders for 7 countries (with good chances of at least one/two more customers). I answer you: no.

Strike Eagle:

USAF: 236 F-15E, and 221 of them will be MLU with APG-82v1 AESA radar, ADCP II, NG cockpit, and EPAWSS before 2021.

RSAF: 72 F-15S + 84 F-15SA, and 68 of F-15S will be upgraded to the F-15SA configuration with APG-63v3 AESA radar.

RSgAF: 24 F-15SG with APG-63v3 AESA radar.

ROKAF: 61 F-15K with APG-63v1 MSA radar, and if F-15SE wins the FX3 competition, there will be another 60 fighters with APG-82 AESA radar.

IsAF: 25 F-15I with the original APG-70 MSA radar, which shall be replaced by the AESA radar in the near future.

In total: 502 orders for 5 countries now (or 562 orders for 5 countries if F-15SE wins the FX3 competition this year), and at least 397 to 457 of them will equip AESA radars (APG-63v3 or APG-82v1) before 2021.

Typhoon:
571 orders for 7 countries now, which I see no big difference comparing with the Strike Eagle’s orders. Not to mention that RAF is preparing to retire its own 55 Tranche I Typhoon during 2016 to 2019, which means that after 2019, the number of in-service Typhoon may be less than the number of in-service Strike Eagle, and tell me that how many in-service Typhoon will be able to get CAPTOR-E at the time of 2021.

It’s not the case of a very spreaded fighter with a lot of back support vs. a minority one with almost no chances of evolution. Not at all.

I didn’t say that Eurofighter is the minority one with almost no chances of evolution. What I meant in my previous post was that I see no evidence that Typhoon can get significant advantage over the Strike Eagle in the exporting orders, in-service numbers, and the foreseeable future upgrading with full support and speed.

The reality is: ROKAF hasn’t eliminated Typhoon before, during nor after technical evaluations. So, Typhoon meets its technical requirements. So, all the other stuff is redundant.

The IAF didn’t eliminate Typhoon before, during nor after technical evaluations either, but it kicked Typhoon out in the final round of MRCA competition, just because Typhoon lacks some “redundant stuff”.

If you think it is much important for Eurofighter to pass the technical evaluations than to win the final competition, then suit yourself to think this stuff as redundancy……

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/05/uk-eurofighter-idUKBRE9540AO20130605

The four nation-backed Eurofighter Typhoon jet will not receive any more export orders unless Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain formally agree to fund the development of an advanced radar, an executive at one of the jet’s manufacturers said.

Potential customers for the multi-role Eurofighter, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have demanded that the jets be equipped with so-called E-scan radars instead of the M-scan system the jet is fitted with, said Chris Bushell, the senior vice president of electronic warfare at Selex, the defence electronics unit of Italy’s Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI).

The four nations agreed in principle to support the development of the new technology in 2011 but signing a formal contract has been delayed by upcoming German elections and the Eurofighter consortium is pressing for a deal to be signed in the first half of next year.

“To export Typhoon in the future around the world, if it’s not equipped with an E-scan radar, I do not believe that there would be another sale made,” said Bushell, whose company produces the jet alongside Britain’s BAE Systems (BAES.L) and EADS (EAD.PA), which represents Germany and Spain.

“It is very well recognised by the partner nations, it is very well recognised by the four industries, and clearly particularly for the UAE, who are an exceptionally demanding customer.”

Bushell added that the partners in the Eurofighter consortium needed to “convince” the UAE that the technology could be delivered “in the time scales they require”.

The radar problem contributed to the Eurofighter consortium last year losing out on a $20 billion deal to sell 126 fighters to India, which instead chose France’s Dassault (AVMD.PA) Rafale jet as preferred bidder.

I think that Boeing and ROK have already given up the canted tails design for F-15SE, and the digital fly-by-wire controls and EW equipment have been already introduced into the F-15SA and F-15SG.

I think the only two major differences between the F-15SE and the proven F-15SA and F-15SG shall be:

1. AN/APG-82v1 AESA radar, which has already begun the flight test in USAF’s F-15Es.

2. External conformal weapon bay, which shall make no major aerodynamic design change for F-15SE comparing with F-15SA and SG.

If you want to describe the design of F-15SE today as “something that hasn’t flown / been proven yet”, then I think you should also describe the Tranche 3 Typhoon design for the ROK Airforce’s requirement in the same way.

I think that most impartial observers can agree that Typhoon has the better overall flight perfromance, supersonic and subsonic maneuverability, dogfighting agility, and the future upgrading potential than the Strike Eagle variant in the A2A area. However, in the area of A2G, it will be another story……

Does Typhoon have any real chance of being ordered?

And why should ROKAF choose EF-2000 over the F-15SE ?

1. No obvious price advantage over F-15SE.

2. No logistic interoperability and commonality with ROKAF’s present F-15K and F-16C/D.

3. No confirmatory productional AESA radar and stand-off A2G capability up to now.

4. No better RCS reduction design comparing with F-15SE.

5. Inferiority in payload and combat range comparing with F-15SE.

6. Inferiority in military cooperation comparing with USA.

7. No brighter future comparing with Strike Eagle family.

1. You can use google to find the documents of 4 channel t/r module. But for me, up to now I still can’t find a document that is simple enough to tell me what kind of solid benfit does the 4 channel t/r module have.

2. All what I know is that the 4 channel t/r module has already been introduced to the newest American and Russian fighter AESA radars, so my personal guess is that 4 channel t/r module may help AESA radar to do the different works (Active radar modes, Passive radar modes, ECM/ECCM/EW, ultra-high speed data-link etc.) at the same time.

I think the “new AESA” in phase 2 was the early AESA radar prototype for GRIPEN NG with the fixed French made AESA.

“Radar gen II AESA” in phase 4″ = The prototype of Raven ES-05 AESA radar with new AESA and swashplate.

“4 channel AESA” in phase 5″ = The pre-productional or productional Raven ES-05 AESA radar.