Rafale’s compressor face is quite well blocked from the front as seen in this image..

More or less like Typhoon, as has been posted before.

Not necessarily, in India they knew they had a competition. They might have thought that they were onto a sure thing in UAE. presumablythey have now been disabused of that notion and will negotiate.

Nevertheless it would kind of fit with EF having dropped their price and so the prices were close, implying that Dassault had not dropped theris. It would also fit with the statement that was mentioned and then forgotten that implied Dassault would submit their bid and then look to negotiate Indian work-share etc. That would imply an immense arrogance in negotiations that i find hard to believ but everything is possible

They would be idiots if they believe that the Air Forces would not talk about the offers with each other. Does anybody believe that Switzerland, Brazil or the UAE have not yet called the Indian government to learn about the prices offered.

That’s where we fundamentaly disagree. You don’t need to know everything of another aircraft to understand what are the main differences in terms of sensor fusion and design philosophy.

Professional judgment and discusion between pilots especially after being confronted after each other can give well enough information to understand where are the strenghts and weaknesses of your competitor.

I just don’t believe that Grandclaudon and captain Romain would be that ignorant about the typhoon especially after years of practising in different international exercises. Their assessment might seems a little too much enthusiastic on the importance of stealth for instance or might be misinterpreted when talking about the typhoon but the core analysis about sensor fusion is always brought as an explanation.

I am not saying anything else that this difference is important enough to be noticed by both pilots and A&C.

He knows Typhoon from one training exercise. But even if he guessed the capabilities presented during the exercise correctly, it does not mean that those presented were the full and final capabilities.

And naother point for the debate. India would get full partner status in the Eurofighter consortium, so they are free to up-grade and change as they fit. They are free to export the plane, although not in competition to other partners, but seriously who will have a production line after 2020, except India?

Accurate ranging would be very hard even for Rafale. Even harder with AESA radars which can modify their output power much more and so will make ranging based on emissions even harder. Against a fast moving target using controlled LPI emissions it should be very hard to pinpoint the location without data sharing between multiple planes. If you use an optical sensor to confirm the location, I would dare say that PIRATE should do this equally well. the only difference I see is the fact that MICA-IR allows a completely passive engagement, while AMRAAM means that the missile will go active and give a warning.
But considering MAWS systems it might no be such a big difference and finally it will depend on the missile, more than on the launch plattform.

It would be louder. But the question about the future of Reds is valid. The Hawk T.1 needs a replacement sooner or later and with the Reds maybe ending up as the sole operator of the type, the maintenance costs will increase, while the training value of those T.1 declines. Should the crash been caused by a technical fault that effects the whole fleet and cost money to fix, it might mean the end for the Reds.

Any gap filler would increase the pressure on Pak-FA and Tejas MK2. If one of those is delayed or becomes a problem (technical or political reasons) the IAF would have some serious problems.
The European aircraft on the other hand offer many goodies:

– License production of current western fighters
– access to western weapons (Meteor, Storm Shadow, AASM, etc.)
– a capable gap filler if Pak-Fa or Tejas are delayed

If they would go all Russian all their eggs would be in one basket + Tejas. Some recent Russian arms deals were less than satisfactory, especially those in which any competition was lacking.

surely that is true of both sides?

surely the RAF (or any opposing force) will be operating at a reduced level as well?

surely that cancels all the whys and wherefores out?:confused:

I did not say which side I meant, because it is impossible to say as the most likely answer is both sides agreed on level playing field – like WVR starting at medium speed and using AIM9L-like capability. (pure example)