Note the Litening III pod also. I wonder if Litening III will be offered to the RuAF anytime soon, given the problems with Damocles licensing.

Does Rafael still source the FLIR from Northrop Grumman?

I think unless Dassault offers massive ToT (like DCNS has wrt the Scorpenes) and sort out the Mirage deal the Typhoon will win this.

Still my head spins thinking about how much a future Rafale MLU would cost India.

The only thing Dassault has said about MMRCA @ Le Bourget has been negative (about offset terms being “difficult”). So that’s a world class French corporation at the World’s premier airshow being negative about the World’s most lucrative defence export contact. Honestly, sometimes French business acumen beggars belief. It’s like after an arduous job selection process, one of the final two shortlisted candidates throws-up all over the interviewer’s laptop!

The Typhoon’s AESA is good news- but still only a ‘Letter of Intent’. Which knocks the ball back into Dassault’s court.

Quad, sorry about your second flat tyre :(. If true, why was the IAF charged twice what the USAF pays for the C-17? (I’m not dissin’ the plane- I think it was the correct decision, I’m just curious).

really? FA-XX is planning to adopt the banana duct? :diablo:

FA-XX is designed for a wavy duct.. waaaaavy

Awww, ya got me Hotdog, you’re simply da best you own this forum and you’re thread titles are so cool and everything!! I wish I was more like you- how the Gods torment me!!, really you are da man!!

[Spares oneself from infraction trap].

For everyone else, here’s an in-line shot of the port engine, it shows the inward cant of it’s installation, note height difference to lower lip of intake and laterelly there will also be a bend (there’s a large wheel in the way).

So yes, “waaaaavy”:rolleyes: (;)).

With that kind of lead you still think that the Russians will get the PAK-FA in the same “time frame”?

So you don’t think that 1 static tester, 1 ground lab, 4 SSD prototypes and 13 pre-production models by 2016 can compete with the F-35 flight test programme? The latter most recently described by Sen. John McCain of SASC as “incredibly troubled”, “a train wreck” and accused LM of doing an “abysmal job”.

Shouldn’t be too difficult, huh?

Ooh I love [good] jokes!! Here’s mine- What’s the biggest difference between the MiG 1.44 and J-20?……-AL-41F!!! hehehehehehehe:D

…no but seriously, I love the F-15 airbrake.

Mirage upgrade deal projected to rise to $3.9bn, increasing dissent from IAF top brass…alternatives sought- MoD asks for a competitive Russian tender, IAF top brass recently took a close look @ the Su-34…..all too much for a Sunday!

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/defence-brass-split-over-french-mirage-upgrade-deal/articleshow/8913733.cms

Q. Why did the NG B-2 engineer sell his secrets to china?

A. To pay his mortgage.

Have you seen the parking lot @ LM? You’d think you were back in the early 1990s!

Scientists & engineers the World over are underpaid and undervalued, this problem is not Russia specific, most likely it stems from the Govt. belief that such labour is not interested in profit and commercial gain.

In the dark 1990s there was a significant Russian brain-drain mainly to the West and Israel, some returned, most didn’t. The children of many elite Russian families who gained citizenship in the West and enjoyed a very priveledged upbringing are eager to return to Moscow (this I know from personal experience). It is for the Russian Govt. to nurture the future generations and encourage the return of skilled & economic classes.
This process is also underway for many skilled, high-value workers from the US & Europe back to India.

The Russian press recently was bullish on NPO Saturn’s 5G engine development, this is somewhat a ‘black art’ in the technological & engineering sector(s), do you think such progress could have been made if the personel were lacking? Look @ china, money no object- and still at the level of AL-31FP.

Something caught my eye recently in the Chepkin interview in which he revealed the existence of the ‘Type 30’ engine. He was scathing of Russian Long Range Aviation describing it as ‘not fit for purpose’. He dismissed the ‘Blackjacks’ as obselete, as ‘presenting too big a radar target, and hence not even any use for flying to Greenland!’.

These comments bode well for a (Tupolev?) NGB. Hence both US & Russian NGB projects will have timelines that coincide very closely. Also look at the PAK-FA, aren’t the in-service dates going to coincide quite closely with the F-35? and how many years head start did the latter have?

Having said that the Russian Govt. must do much more to retain key scientists, engineers and highly skilled labour along with nurturing the next generation. Projects such as the following are a step in the right direction:

http://www.knaapo.ru/rus/news/archive/index.wbp?article-id=7AB1DE4D-848E-4A23-8657-8F8F54A7ED9D