The ‘facts on the ground’ concerning Chinese espionage, cost of redesigning systems, etc. is reasonable enough; it’s the broader picture that’s being painted with them — that this is a significant contributor to the woes of the F-35 program, the implicit portrait of honest, hardworking Americans being unfairly harassed by those sly, deceitful Chinese — that’s a little silly.

With the greatest spy network of all time, they really want to tell us that they didn’t see it coming ? Given how tight they are with their closest allies, they really want us to believe that the program was compromised because the Chinese hacked the Italians ? To find what ? How much they were p*** about cost overrun ?

This seems to me like the classic blame the evil communists for all our sorrows…

Moot point there PtiDav.
If a Rafale fly over ‘Enemy territory’ with its radar tuned down, and then what?
It probably has DT, A2G and A2A on those pylons.
So on Enemy Territory they have perhaps Hugh land based radar stations or AWACS..

Rafale May be a clever little fighter, but with all those pylons and wet stations occupied.. RCS is a bitch.:)

First it would use its unique capability to generate real time three-dimensional maps for terrain-following above uncharted terrain in blind conditions to fly low level penetration using info from satellites and other ELINT assets to evade radar, and spectra should be able to lure and jam any pop up threat.
Then based on the mission it could either deliver AASM from 15km to +60km. Or a long range stealthy Scalp/Storm Shadhow. Or if you really p** it off a super sonic ASMP-A (note that there are studies to field variants in the anti-ship role, fitted with GPS it could also provide land attack capability).

The AASM can take care of most short range SAM while Scalp would take on long range SAM. Scalp is stealthy and the MICA missile has a lower RCS than previous generation missile due to the use of light weight composite materials.

These capabilities mean that Rafale can create a corridor through enemy territory for other strike package. The spectra can analyse any emissions and store/transmit them over Link 16 allowing the next wave to know exactly where the threat is to avoid or destroy. All this while providing self escort and keeping the sky clear thank to the agility of the RBE. Better all this done by just two Rafales. That’s 12 ground targets destroyed, and 8 to 12 enemy aircraft shot. After that they still have their gun to get back home.

In defence should they protect their home alone, small nose or not, two Rafales can keep tracks of 80 targets and engage up to 12. PESA should allow them to detect with greater accuracy than mechanical radar (and be virtually insensitive to jamming) at about 100 km while the AESA “should” be at about 200km. Each time within full range of their weapons system. Once their missiles depleted they can still remain on station as long as their fuel allow it to provide targets coordinates to the next batch coming into the fight while still be able to defend themselves.

Day two, when the J10, Su, JF17, F16, SAM and the likes are no longer an issue, they can be fitted with cheaper LGB or even dumb bombs and start playing duck and cover with the ground forces.

Now imagine all the above but with 126 Rafales + Awacs for full situational awareness, tankers, MKI etc. and despair !

Rafale International

Air Cmde Parvez Khokhar (Retd.), a former IAF test pilot, addressed some of the skepticism

I was the first pilot from the IAF to fly the Rafale in 2003. Having flown a number of the other competitors for the MMRCA deal, I can state with absolute conviction, that the IAF evaluation team has done a thoroughly professional job, which we should all be proud of.

There are no reservation as far as the IAF is concerned. Each manufacturers eliminated were told why, and apart from some claims about India choosing a plane rather than a bad romance, none have claimed so far it was unfair.

The Rafale was short listed on merit, and won on competitiveness. Any skepticism is done for political reasons, to place doubt in the public about the choice. No amount of simulation and “experts” will make the Rafale a lesser plane. In fact they’ve lost all credibility as far as I’m concerned.

There is a difference between the price publicly advertised and the real price the Indian MoD would have to pay, given their specific requirement. So no they are not supposed to have known the prices until the bids were opened.

How about a navy tanker based on the Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye; remove radar and all associated electronics, reduce crew from 5 to 2 and use the extra internal space for additional internal fuel loads?

The E-2 is a derivative of the C-2 logistic transport aircraft, which the US loaned two to France during the Lybian’s conflict. I guess if it was a viable tanker option, it would have been developed as such. I also often wonder why they are not making a MPA variant, that could provide the carrier group with anti submarine warfare with far better range and time on station than helicopters currently do.

Good point.

Just for the record, does anyone know how much aviation fuel an aircraft carrier can carry?

Depend if its nuclear powered or not. Plus a carrier group is usually made of a support ship or ships that can provide unlimited supply. So as long as you have the money and the infrastructures you shouldn’t ever run out.

SPECTRA provide a very good situational awareness and the abilities to engage target beyond the scope of the radar. The MICA IR imagery can be coupled with the OSF in order to provide detection and targeting capabilities.
Link 16, sensor fusion etc add to that picture.

As a result the AdlA who contrary to some other European air forces kept a strong dogfighting tradition and skills think that the gain of the current technology HMD isn’t worth the effort. That’s their choice.
They do not simply use their Rafale for air policing and escorting old bomber, but for long range strike as demonstrated in Lybia (only the Tornados demonstrated similar capabilities in Europe btw).

Now apparently they think a two colors HUD is prefarable right now to increase their situational awareness than HMD.

Thales is only a generation behind in term of product due to the fact that the French forces doesn’t seem to give the HMD system much faith in general.
In term of technology itself there are quite a few French universities working on Augmented Reality HMDs for aeronautics uses…