I don’t know what you’re talking about :p

all that picture proves is that its a huge airplane.. and that’s why people don’t like its look. its excessively large, and its size accentuates its boxy features making it look like a suit case.

it only looks good from the front shots because its hiding how long it is.

its like that picture fat chicks put up that focus only on their heads and crops the rest of the body.

the J-20 is like a 5th gen Tu-128 or J-8 in looks.

the J-31 looks far more balanced and pleasing.

the size of the landing gear panel seems to imply there’s not enough space for side bays. so I guess this thing will have only two bottom bays like the F-35

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Italy:
So what? The UK has been building steel ships with engines for much longer than Korea. Where would you go to buy a merchant ship?

Korea because of cheaper labor. But in this case Korea is the Uk and Serbia is the cheaper labor.

OK, let us look at IAF’s past, present and future plans.

Throughout the 80s and 90s, the IAF fleet consisted of Mirage 2000s, MiG-29s, Jaguars, MiG-23s and MiG-21s (ignoring the few MiG-25Rs for recce purposes). Navy had Harrier Mk.51s. That would leave India with three vendors to count on – Russia, France, UK.

Presently:
The mainstay of the fleet is Russian made, the Su-30MKI. The bulk of the fighters will be upgraded Mirage 2000s, upgraded MiG-29UPGs, upgraded Jaguars (Darin II), upgraded MiG-27s and upgraded MiG-21 Bisons. Navy has LUSH SHARs.. Still three vendors.

Future:
Mainstay will be T-50 and Super-30 – both Russian. HAL LCA will add up numbers. Navy will be flying MiG-29K/KUBs. There is simply no way MiG-35s would be added to that mix, leaving Indians completely exposed to a single foreign vendor.

The Rafale was a logical choice as a natural replacement of the Mirage 2000. But it was mainly chosen because it is European-made. Better or worse than MiG-35 plays little role here.

And what exactly have Europeans developed in the meantime that was so much better than what Russians have on offer? Let us look at the radars of that era: RDY/RDY-2, RDY-3 (RC-400), RBE2 PESA, Blue Vixen, Captor, Ericsson PS-05 and Grifo series.

Compared to that, between 1990 and 2005, Russians still have developed no less than 17 fighter radar types.
Five for the MiG-29 series: two slotted (N-010, Zhuk-M/ME/M2E) and three PESA (FGM29F-01M Zhuk-MF, OSA-2, Bars-29)
Seven for Su-3x series: two slotted (N-011, FGM29-14 Zhuk-MS) and five PESA (N011M BARS, N031 Zhuk-MSF Sokol, PERO PESA for N001, Irbis-E, B004 for Su-34)
Four for MiG-21 and MiG-23 series: two slotted (FC03-01 Kopyo-F/Sh/M, Moskit-23) and three PESA (Kopyo-DL, Faraon, NIIP OSA-1)
One for MiG-31 (Zaslon-M)

That is seven/eight types versus seventeen, all despite of the “stalling” period for Russia.. Time to reconsider your stance about the stopped technological improvement?

Of course it is, Russian have a wider portfolio of aircraft than EU and this has to be maintained.

There are some common modules among the radars listed, the most apparent being the N011M BARS and the smaller BARS-29, as well as Zhuk-M and scaled-up Zhuk-MS series for Su-30. The same applies to European radars (Thales RDY with RDY-2 and the scaled down RDY-3 or the Blue Vixen which has evolved into Captor). Pretty common on all sides.

Yes, you have. You have explicitly written that the technological improvement stopped for 15 years in Russia. Which implies that they are behind the Euros in radar technology. The rest is just semantics.

Just FYI, my favorite plane is the Raffie and I was very pleased with the MRCA outcome.. but unlike you, I stay realistic with my assumptions about the reasons for the choice.

See my response above. There was no way the MiG-35 or any other Russian plane would be chosen for India, whatever the results would have been.. Which, of course, does not imply that the 35 was the best one of the contenders..

its not a quantitative thing. many of these companies show things they would LIKE to make, but very few are actually produced and fully developed.

True with Russia and somewhat Europe.

but AESA in consideration, does seem European companies are further along with the Rafale being delivered in AESA configureation already

Trainer

Serbia has a longer history of developing aircraft than Korea.

If you want to “waste” the Rafale and EF on the comparison against the MiG-29 (with the obvious intention to let them “win”), then I somehow fail to recognize what do you want to put up against the Flanker and Foxhound series.

There are many MiG-29 believers who feel the MiG-29 is comparable to the Rafale and EF especially the upgraded versions of the MiG-29. JSR will kindly tell you that the MiG-29 variants are superior to the Rafale and EF.

As for Foxhound, it is a unique plane and you know that.

Hardly… The RDM radar was junk, even worse than N019. The upgrades only came gradually – RDI, N019M, RDY, Zhuk-M, RDY-2, Zhuk-MF.. The 2000 used PGMs a decade before MiG-29 got them. OTOH, Fulcrums had HMS which the 2000 does not possess even today. For me it’s a draw by all means.

quite frankly they are both junk but the Mirage 2000 upgraded its radar. it is not a static design

MiG-23, too, had SARH capabilities (R-23R – AA-7 Apex)

[/quote]
Not all SARH is the same.. but the Super Matra 530 proved itself as Iraq downed plenty of F-5s and F-4s and even a legendary F-14 with it. R-23 also used in the same war but with less success
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_404.shtml