If France hadn’t killed off all of their own competitors to the Rafale they could have offered a competitor in the low end (Mirage F.1 with M88) or a low-middleweight (Mirage 2000). MBDA swallowed up their proprietary AAM technology allowing MICA on competitors (not that any took it up). They’ve all but tried to burn bridges with UK programs where they’ve made it unfathomable to operate Rafale from QE or PoW. And they might just screw up the export deal with the IAF. I don’t think SAAB has anything to worry about with respect to French competition.

The real question is will Brazil try to uptake weaponry that is indigenous, European, American, Israeli, or from somewhere else? Brazil’s Gripen will surely carry Derby and MAR-1, but what else? Brimstone? Storm Shadow? Python?

In all fairness the Gripen win maintains some American jobs, just not the whole $4.5 billions worth.

IMHO the JSF program suffers from corporate control more than idealism. If the USN had sway to define a bigger plane with two engines while the USAF and USMC got their wish for a lighter plane, but all three shared the core electronics, communications, sensors, and so on then is it really such a performance unfriendly program? The manufacturers in the contest had no reason to aim high in the performance realm when they were allowed to jointly barter the parameters beforehand. You get what you ask for, and in the end they’ve stepped back yet further in the publicized specs.

I personally don’t see it lacking performance as much as the true combat capabilities are classified as to never be revealed, but that is another issue altogether.

New USAF Training Head: T-X Requirements Under Review

I hope it means keeping it back to the general scope of a T-38 and they quit chasing gold-plated options.

C-5 and B pale to C-7. I’m quite sure they would prefer any active missile that is radar guided and BVR. If they could cue ASRAAM with the JHMCD to take long shots it would still be an edge over Iran counterparts. Does South Africa’s Derby counterpart (R Darter) have export potential? It’s a good size for T50IQ.

It’s a combat capable trainer flying in a hostile environment. It’s 50% heavier than MiG-21U. How cheap do you imagine jets fly?