I believe in unstable FBW aircraft the FCS constantly makes minute movements of the control surfaces to keep the plane flying as desired compared to ‘stable’ airframes. hence the actuators (from Moog) need to be really heavy duty.
you can see 4 prominent bulges on wings of Rafale prototype here:

http://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/AIRCRAFT-IMAGES/Rafale.jpg

on production rafale they seem to have reduced that to two perhaps by combining the actuators.
http://www.comptoir-aviation.com/Rafale.jpg

I am confused. will it scan only a single 120′ sector during a orbit or it can simultaneously scan 120+120 ?

what does the Ereyie do ? 😮

B.Harry, Astra ground launch to test rocket motor

could someone pls post “rakalls” boothspy report on the project. overall the specs are reasonable not bleeding edge .. eg 240′ coverage is sought onlee not the holy grail of 360′. similar to ereyie there will be esm/iff type device in the nose and tail to provide some situational awareness in those quadrants.

finding nothing to criticize and whine about, perhaps the idea of shouting with large fonts was to provoke a flamewar ?

people who like the Y-8 product should just go ahead and buy it, we are not placing any roadblocks to it. 😀

who makes all these airshow models of planes and munitions ? the manufacturer themself or they supply it to toy makers ?

it has been clarified the brahmos tubes are not field reusable but certainly can be reloaded in factory. tubed life is 10 yrs and inspection every 3 yrs.

the brahmos LACM version apparently has SAR radar for scene matching and not IIR. as you said IIR is vulnerable to adverse climatic conditions and no ideal for a all-weather use.

courtesy B.Harry, here is some prelim pic of LSP 02 and Tejas trainer(PV05) under construction. seems to indicate LSP 01 and PV 04 would be further along going by logical sequence. some say PV04 is cancelled and PV05 is next.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/4151/lsp02wh4.jpg

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/4889/lcatrainer3jr6.jpg

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/3130/lcatrainer2qi1.jpg

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/546/lcatrainertm8.jpg

also two images of a dummy MMR radar being fitted for carriage tests …

http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/1055/mmr1az8.jpg
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/4577/mmr2fy3.jpg

LSP 01 is nearing flight
http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?gid=73&id=448855

Limited series production LCA makes first ground run

BANGALORE, FEB 6 (PTI)

In a significant step in the country’s indigenous fighter jet programme, the first light combat aircraft Tejas from a limited series production successfully made a ground run here.

“This ground run on the Limited Series Production-1 is a major event in any production programme running concurrently with the development of prototypes. The aircraft has already undergone extensive ground testing of various systems before undertaking this event,” said a release today from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, which is building the jet.

During the ground run yesterday, the aircraft behaved “very well as per the specifications”, HAL said. The LCA production team will build seven more aircraft in addition to LSP-1 by 2008.

Under a contract signed by HAL and the Indian Air Force in 2006, the first batch of 20 series production jets will start rolling out of HAL’s facilities during 2009-10. A production rate of eight aircraft a year is planned.