The L-15 isn’t presumed to be exactly Mach 2. It’s merely a Yakovlev aided spinoff of the Yak-130. It looks very similar to the Yak-130 and M-346 because the design originated from the same authors. Besides, even China isn’t too inspired to use the L-15, as they opted for the J-7 spinoff.

Can Rafale cope with Canada is the question. I know Rafale has done extensive cold box testing. How that translates to the real world God only knows.

Typhoon probably is the better fit for NORAD. Super Hornet is probably the best cost-effective purchase. But Rafale would be cool to see up north.

It would be ironic if someone like Boeing or LockMart came in and set up the refurbs for the IAF. Not only that, but turned around and offered new weapon suites for the fleet. Dassault probably has a leg up in this respect. No doubt Snecma could use a peek at Al-31. MDBA would probably not mind a piece of the pie.

F-14 again :

SRAM would have looked nice as a tactical nuclear strike option akin to FB-111.

The US plans to scrap 7 of ours, sounds like they should be swapped for your old ones.

The Harrier really wasn’t cheap. It’s engine was actually substantial in comparison to many fighters of comparable weight.

The X-32 would only be affordable if it had been scaled back. Building around F1X0 engines, like the F-16, makes strategic sense for many allies. The Gripen pretty much maxed out the F4X4 potential. The F100 and F110 offer a 50% increase, which interesting enough is similar to how F135 is a 50% increase over them. There is a slight wiggle room for a twin F125 powered aircraft, with the pair of engines costing more in the long run. By the time you squeak more out of F125’s you may as well go COTS and license build the mighty mite M88.

The 5G fighters really need to focus on survival. I don’t know if an F100 or F110 powered jet will lift a fighter high enough or fast enough to compete with F-22 or T-50. But for damn sure you could meter out enough performance to threaten the dominance of any current light to middleweight legacy fighters.

Will they begin 3D TVC flight envelope on T-50-8? The design appears to flow to that capability, especially considering the nozzles droop at rest.

The single, monolithic tail is obsolete IMHO. I want to see a set of all moving tail rudders like on Sukhoi’s T-50 and Chengdu’s J-20. A miniaturized Sukhoi T-50 wouldn’t be that hard on the eyes.