There was one set of engagements with the F-22, TMor. All were WVR. The F-22 won all of them, against all comers. (They didn’t fight the RJAF F-16s or the Typhoons).

The six Raptors were undefeated, against all opponents. 27th FS CO Lt Col Lansing Pilch was quoted by the Virginian as saying that: “In every test we did, the Raptors just blew the competition out of the water.”

I believe the Rafales did well, though, and impressed the F-22 pilots.

Interesting. I’ve never seen any picture of a Rafale firing its gun, nor of a Rafale having fired its gun, nor have I read any report of EC 1/7 having done any strafe, nor of the gun being available for use.

Was the gun something that industry were going to clear, or was it being left to the customer – as was the case for Typhoon?

Nor would I expect the AdlA to have bothered pushing forward with clearance of such a low priority item at this stage. The RAF had a specific reason for doing so.

“Tiffies were on the blue side.”

Where’s the link?

I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’ve seen nothing to state definitively what the RoE or briefed limits were.

I expect that the cabin pressure differential was somewhat greater in the Comets, too. They flew higher, and with civilian passengers’ comfort to take account of. Every pressurisation cycle would therefore have had a greater effect on the airframe.

I’d say that the piece illustrated represents Dassault’s official endorsement that ATLC “demonstrated the superiority of our equipment against the Typhoon of the RAF.”

Unless the magazine contains the detailed (4-0 3-1 score claims) in which case it endorses the detailed claims as well.

That adds fuel to the fire.

Are you being deliberately obtuse, are you hard of understanding, or is reading not your thing?

The ‘eroding edge’ enjoyed by F-15K/F-16E is only that conferred by JHMCS and IRST – in all other areas Typhoon has a much greater edge.

‘Catching up’ was in specific reference to PIRATE and the F-15K/F-16E/F’s IRSTs.

PIRATE is actually older than those pieces of equipment.

JHMCS will be overtaken by HEA (which represents a generational leap) which will be in full frontline service later in the year.

Sferrin.

Typhoon wipes the floor with F-15K or F-16E/F.

Sintra.

Toan was implying that we had whined and moaned when Rafale ‘beat’ Typhoon (he doesn’t seem to get it that we were pointing out that such a claim was wrong), and that now that F-15 had similarly been ‘beaten’ the F-15 supporters would do as we had supposedly done.

TMor,

I only correct the untruths. I still manage to make a lot more positive comments about Rafale than you’ve ever made about Typhoon.