Originally posted by PLA
Do you think they are allowed to do that? Not very long ago there was a problem with the deovery of the newest F16’s cause PAF would deliver the pilots. Haven’t herad the ending of that. But PAF flying AWACS planes while not having a few in their own hands? How much chance of that when all of the KSA AWACS are flown by western pilots and controllers?

Wasn’t the solution to the F-16 pilot issue that the US would provide pilots/training instead of PAF pilots?

Originally posted by Tempest
Trust the Swedes to build a fighter that you can fly home and park in the garage:)

Forget flying it home and parking it in the garage, it would be far more fun to pick up ur date for the evening in a Gripen 😀

Originally posted by glitter
The airframe importance get down each year.
What’s important is avionics and radar.
the mirage 4000 was a mirage 2000 with a better range, nothing more.

Lets see – 1.5 times the weight with twice the thrust, giving a power-to-weight ratio of over 1 (and that was with the original M53 – with the later M53-P2 it would have been even higher). Almost as much fuel in the tail as the Mirage 2000 carries in a single wing. It was said to be more unstable so actually more manouverable the the 2000. Much more space for the all important radar and avionics than the 2000, as well as much better pilot visibility, along with 2 extra medium pylons. The 4000 was much more than just a 2000 with better range.

The RDM was fitted because that was what was available at the time. If the Mirage 4000 had gone into production, it would probably have had the RDI if not something else since the nosecone was much larger than the Mirage 2000s (it could accomodate a radar dish of up to 80cm in diameter).

What about the f414? Smaller, lighter and about 4000lb more thrust than the J79.