China would fill in any vacuum. Neo-colonialism is real. Africa is showing it’s effects. The problem is China has no significant indigenous aircraft to offer. They could maybe offer J-8, but what’s the value there? Highly unlikely they are in position to offer J-10 or JF-17. Perhaps K-8, but it’s not a very heavy jet. I cannot see any way Libya would benefit from J-7. Just unlikely China could horn in on any deal in this respect.
I believe it was about the way aid money was being allocated. If Israel had offered their own money without cutting back the number of F-35 they are projected (essentially forced) to buy then F-15SE could have been an option. But they wanted one and to push back the other. Not going to happen.
Modes like HOJ will be in from the start. The Meteor will be more software upgradeable than previous missiles, so the functionality will back fill as it becomes available.
The IAF prepared some special fuses for their F-4 Foxbat hunter-killer flights. They never got to use them of course, but it probably would have been relatively possible to do the same with F-104S and some help from GCI operator, right?
The Mirage 2K has more SA than the F-104S. Even though the Zipper could technically fly higher and faster it wouldn’t necessarily be able to line up for a shot. Plus it takes special fusing to hit such a high speed target. The French missiles supported the necessary fusing from the get-go.
The JF-17 design is supposed to drastically cut the man-hours of time needed to keep it airborne compared to MiG-21. It’s fuel consumption will increase, but cutting cutting man-hours is more important in the broad scope of factors. Why do people keep insisting a small fighter like JF-17 will be relatively expensive? The claim is unsubstantiated.
Perhaps in the event of a Typhoon win the Indian government will tender a Mirage 2K replacement with a caveat for allowing upgrades into the competition for competing against new builds. You would have to open up competition from something in the price range that its worthwhile or you may just have to spend the dough for new builds…
I’m eager to see what Sea Gripen can offer. It’s probably a huge step up from A-4M out there. Perhaps the USN should look into it to fill some empty hangar spaces on their flattops.
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