Still puzzled – how can the UK not buying a 150 F-35B’s effect the price of ~2400 F-35 purchased by the US more that by a small margin as in effect the total number of aircraft purchased would only drop by ~0.6% and that does not take in effect the other export sales.

I think you did a typo and meant to put 6%. As far as I know the plan is for USMC to receive ~400, UK to receive 150 and Italy ~60. Reducing the F-35B total from ~600 to ~450 would be ~25% reduction and I think a reduction of that magnitude would be bound to raise the unit production cost of the B model.

Typhoon and Rafale exist as two different planes because UK (at the time) refused to take the need into account for carrier operations.

I think it was a stupid mistake by the UK. IIRC there was also stupidity on the part of the French – France wanted to have project leadership and the largest workshare, leaving UK, Germany and Italy with minor roles.

Combining the research budgets of Rafale and Typhoon, and the much higher production numbers of Rafale + Typhoon would have created a far better plane, cheaper and still with much better return for EU industry.

The plane might not have been much better but if dev costs of Rafale + Eurofighter are (say) 30 billion euros, I think that bill would have been 5-10+ billion euros lower for a single design. An order for ~ 900 aircraft instead of ~ 600 aircraft would have reduced the unit production cost, too. One consequence is that Rafale and Typhoon meet more price resistance in the export market than would have been the case otherwise.

It would have allowed a combined development and management of aircraft carriers with the french with same results.

Again, sad.

and now they would go for super hornet and continue the chain of incomprehensible decisions which have turned UK from a technological leader into an industrial disaster?

Well, in their defence, there is the bigest national debt crisis for many, many decades in the UK. F-35 was going to be a cheap aircraft. It has become an expensive aircraft. If F/A-18 would cost billions less then F/A-18 it may be all that can be afforded. Not ideal but beggars can’t always be choosers.

…is the Rafale not longer in the tooth than Super Hornet?

I suppose you could say that Rafale is longer in the tooth than Super Hornet given that Rafale first flew in the 1980’s whereas Super Hornet was designed later. Super Hornet was not a clean sheet design though, was it?

and its ridiculous to say that the Uk should have built the typhoon for carrier ops…. on what?

if there had been internet back then, can you iumagine the fuss our contemporaries (or indeed some present today) would have made about designing an aircraft to fly off of carriers we don’t operate and can’t conceive of operating?

Kind of shows how little conception those in charge of procurement actually had, doesn’t it? How inconceivable was it that no carrier requirement would emerge during the production lifetime of Eurofighter? Obviously not 100%, since invitations to tender for large UK carriers were issued in 1999, less than 13 years after Eurofighter was formed. The option to adapt Typhoon for naval use would have proved useful to UK.

Eurojet Consortium is definitely the more expensive one amongst F-414 and Ej200, but the likely gains are that the Ej200 has a possible upgrade path where GTRE can be involved as well.

Eurojet were asked to design an engine with substantial growth potential.

“The EuroJet consortium were required to build an engine (often referred to as EJ2x0) which had at least a 20% growth potential.”

Source: http://typhoon.starstreak.net/Eurofighter/engines.html

I have to ask what contribution GTRE could make to further developing the Eurojet engine. I don’t think their knowledge and expertise can be compared to Eurojet’s knowledge and expertise, so what use would GTRE be to any kind of joint development venture?

Trials for India’s 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) deal, worth $12 billion, concluded earlier this month, and it is said the news is “good” for the Eurofighter Typhoon

The news is said to be good by whom? Leaked IAF reaction?

An extremely tragic event, and a sorry state of affairs of the MiG-27s in the IAF’s fleet. These ought to be replaced ASAP with any jet — whether imported, or Tejas.

I think there is a very strong case to do ONE OR MORE of the following 3 steps :-

1) Accept the French offer of 40 Rafales.
2) Accept the UAE offer of 40 Mirage-2000-V.
3) Increase the orders of Tejas Mk.1 by 2 more squadrons atleast. From 48 presently, to 72.

Any one or more of the above will immediately drop the albatross called MiG from the IAF’s neck. These MiG-27s must retire peacefully in front of college buildings before they kill any more.

1) Not a good idea to me. Would be very expensive unless Rafale won the MMRCA selection process on its own merit
2) Would this not be tied to Rafale being ordered by UAE?
3) I see every reason to order more Tejas Mk1. Increasing the number to 80 or 100

a) it would raise IAF fighter numbers
b) it would be relatively inexpensive – the aircraft is relatively low cost and costs associated with type introduction would not rise much
c) it could be used to cannibalise flight hours from other types
d) the amount of foreign exchange involved would be relatively low
e) it would save lives compared with types with a higher attrition rate

If after some in-service experience the IAF finds the Tejas Mk1 acceptable or better, I think they should plan to increase the numbers. After all, IAF squadron numbers are far below desired levels.

BS News: MOD may issue a new tender for MMRCA early Jan next year.The shortlisted aircraft went too expensive in terms of thier long terms encurring costs.

Aims to clear the competition with additional contenders at the latest by 2015.
Soon the new contenders will be released to public.

Lol…………

Source of the BS news, please?

:dev2:

Come on Jimmy, things don’t have to be slow. Sometimes people choose to do things slowly.

I’ll tell you a little story. I was once in the process of buying a house in England. Lawyers were handling the affair. I went to see them at one point and asked how long it would take to do the search (to check no road is about to go through the house / there is no public footpath through the garden etc). They said it would take about a week. It takes about 30 minutes in reality at the town hall about 500m from their office so I told them a week was ridiculous – all they had to do was send someone to the town hall and the whole thing would be wrapped up in an hour or so. I told them I would go and do it myself if they thought it took a week. Next day they had done the search.

Originally Posted by Spitfire9
A project to install the Kaveri in the LCA and to have it completed by end 2009 was announced ?2008? I guess the project was halted. I have heard no news of this project being completed.

I am pleased to see what is written below. I will be even more pleased to see a Kaveri-engined Tejas flying within ~6 months. I take it you mean end 2010 / early 2011, not early / end 2011.

as per revised plans in June 2010 Kaveri will be integrated with Pv-1 (PV-1 has not been flying for a quite a time now ) and to be flown by end or early 2011