The simple fact is Typhoon is an F-15C peer in a jet two-thirds the footprint that doubles as the F-15E bomb truck without a dedicated airframe to each role. That is a substantial upgrade over what was previously operated.
TF-306 was a custom TF30 turbofan for Dassault until the M53 flew. No different than Rafale using F404 until M88 flew.
The plan was for a small run (50-odd) of the Mirage G8 as a reconn plane. It had no useful load and the only picture I found with an underwing load was the G4 prototype. There is no indication the underwing pylons were pivotable on wing sweep changes. No box glove pylons. No internal bay. It’s utility was pretty low potential-wise.
I don’t think the Mirage G in any version studied (G, G4, G8) offered much in the room for external loads. It was more or less built around a capability rather than a pragmatic design. The G8 would have been too expensive to justify in any role for the French and it was replaced by something much more practical.
3D printing isn’t for speedy work, its for incredible detail and consistency. I can program a cnc cutting table, the 3D process is about 50K times more granular.
Why the difference between the F-15SE and F-35 packages?
The deals are polar opposites with regard to cooperation. The F-35 is basically pay a lot and get no input. The F-15SE is basically pay much upfront and more cooperation.
The preproduction PL-12 was short, the PL-12B was the produced version and is much longer, and the PL-12C is the Meteor equivalent using small ramjets. The picture depicts the preproduction PL-12 so I see no reason to suspect it is a Photoshop without decrypting all the timestamps in it. Its not worth the effort for a trivial issue.
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