my guess would be that the shot was taken before the MiG-29K was chosen. It was known that the IN favoured the Rafale M, but that the Russians pushed the MiG-29K along with the Gorshkov. there was always talk of IN and IAF pilots having evaluated the Rafale, but this is the first photographic evidence of that having happened.

obviously the FC-1 is comin along pretty fast, after all its not as advanced as the J-10. and China has plenty of experience with medium technology fighters. exploring the flight envelope of the FC-1 should’nt take too long, and if proven Chinese avionics are to be mated, it will expedite the process even more.

this article accuses a Senator of taking bribes to cajole the US Govt. not to sell equipment to Pakistan. what basis is the author using for this wild speculation ? and what’s so great in India safeguarding its interests in keeping Pakistan militarily weak. we’re enemies, and its obvious that our interest lies in keeping our enemy weak, given the enemy’s penchant for adventurism.

Indrac, all export versions prior to the Mirage-2000-5 series were with black radomes. except for the Hellenic AF. my question still remains unanswered. why would the AdA shift to using gray radomes, and the IAF, which has been chaning all its fleet camos, continue with the black radome when it enhances visibility ? it could’nt just be an oversight.

no, the point Im trying to make is that the IAF is moving towards standardising all aircraft camos with the all-matt gray color. see even the radome of the MKIs being the same (slightly lighter) color, as the rest of the aircraft.This is different from that of the MK/K, where slightly darker gray radomes are used.

yet, for the Mirage fleet (and its the only aircraft in the IAF now that keeps black radomes), even for the new build attrition replacements, the radome is black. radomes are made at HAL as far as i know, so why could’nt they have changed the color to gray to reduce overall visibility ? maybe the radar has something to do with it. :confused:

interesting color scheme on the Egyptian Mirage-2000.They were ordered a little before the IAF Mirage-2k, and sports the kind of camouflage that’s now seen commonly on the IAF fleet.

I’ve always wondered, why exactly the RDM radars needed a black radome, with even IAF new Mirages with the upgraded RDM-7 radars sporting the black radome. compare that to AdA’s Mirage-2000C fighters and the Mirage-2000-5 fighters, all have radomes that are matt-gray in color. can anyone throw any light on this question ?