You ever pay a bit more for express deliveries.;)

Now we have Rafale mail bombers, Tornado & Typhoon fast food deliverers. Something else?:D Oh I forgot about the Gripen chicken strikers, but that’s a different story.

@mildave
The ownership of a Company doesn’t translate into a design responsibility and not even any sort of technology transfer. Thales France is just the holder. The same is true for the F-22’s ALR-94 designed by Sanders which was swallowed by BAE Systems, but the UK company doesn’t hold any IP and the technology isn’t even transfered to the British holder.

@mack8,
AL-41F1A was a designation previously linked to the engine we now know as the AL-41F1S aka article 117S. I suppose the 117A designation reflects that former designation, whether it was official at any point or not is beyond me.

I suppose you missed this part.

I missed nothing you just don’t grasp the fact that the Thales Group has swallowed a lot of companies from all across the world. That means that a lot of formerly independent companies are now under the flag of Thales. That doesn’t mean that any (now) Thales product is made in France or had French involvement. TMor explained it perfectly! Whether “merged” or “swalloed” doesn’t change the fact!

If Typhoon wins it would still be wise to incorporate Mica IR search functions into the Mirage 2K, which is one reason the upgrade costs so much. Would be nice to see ASRAAM and IRIS-T have similat integration on Typhoon.

With PIRATE being a dedicated IRST which is much more capable than an IR seeker on a missile such an integration would be redundant. I think the main reason for the MICA IR integration into the Rafale and the possible integration into the M2k is largely owed to the lack of an adequate IRST sensor. The one incorporated by the OSF is reportedly obsolete and doesn’t perform to the satisfaction of the AdA/MN. That’s the reason why you don’t see an IR channel being part of the improved OSF-IT. Though Thales appear to be working on a new IRST for the next evolution OSF-NG slatted for batch 5 Rafales.

since we’re at it, an EF-18 did “shoot” down an F-22 :diablo:

You probably mean EA-18G and btw a T-38 got a gun kill against a Raptor as well.;)

what i’m saying is that it obviously has a low RCS and that is visible fropm at least two points:

1- when facing fighters like the eurofighters it managed to get the lock abnd shoot without them being able to lock and fire back, despite the fact that the eurofighter features a more powerful radar (if its “more powerful radar repeadly can’t lock until too late, then the only explanation would be a lower RCS)

Guys like you are so focussed on the results from Solorenzera and Al Dhafra that you forget about the Greek F-16s during that Agapanthe exercise or what it was called, which defeated the Rafales (with AWACS support on the Rafale’s side I might add) when the CdG was attacked and virtually destroyed. You also forget about the F-4F nicknamed Rafale eater scoring 5 kills against the Rafale and you can bet that these were conducted BVR as well. EF-18As acting as aggressors during one TLP I’m aware off also conducted BVR shots against Rafales. To cut it short that Rafale is a defacto stealth plane claims are a myth and nothing else. Lower RCS and not THAT easy or better said early to detect yes, but invincible and undefeatable, definitely not! Makes you wonder what the outcome of the other DACTs was Lt.Col. Grandclaudon hinted at during the AFM interview and why he didn’t state the results of them.:diablo: