The big commissions will be paid during the contract writing, after the final selection.

Bribes are not simply about being selected, in India it’s more like money to get the process moving forward if you don’t want to wait 20 years to get your contract finalized (or even end up cancelled, see the A330MRTT deal).

quit trolling. or are you laying down the ground work in advance in case rafale loses out ?

i was wanting to discuss this because i think this is the right place to do it.

Eurofighter is committing to a massive AESA operational in 2015 and offering high levels of flexibility both in terms of what the radar can do, and what the customer can have the aircraft do. Its almost as if they are saying that there will be too much capacity for people to handle.

So much for the hyperbole, it must put to bed the idea that the programme is based on dreams and projections….

I am reasonably certain that any more tech bells and whistles will not have any effect on the final decision. the downselect means IAF is confident that BOTH raffles and typhoid will meet its minimum technical requirements in due time.
from now on only overall cost, offsets and TOT will matter.

And the deadline for LCA was like 10 years ago …

If MMRCA will be closed by September that would really be surprise.

are you sure ? because that would have been a world record. the LCA project was started in 1993, to finish a 4th gen fighter in 8 years (10 years ago i.e in 2001) starting from zero R&D infrastructure would require martians. that’s not even taking into account the 2 years lost due to US withholding FC software developed by India.

swerve, given the changed ground situation I don’t think there was any alternative. personally I think this whole circus is a waste of time, they should have bought mirages the first time around.

true, this is a classic case of trying to stall the process and get USG to put pressure through other means. nothing is going to change as far as MRCA is concerned.

Now the way i see it, two light engines occupy more volume than a heavy single engine

nope. in fact the single engine is one of the major source of problems on the F-35. having 2 smaller engines allows to have larger unbroken spaces than one massive engine bang in the middle of an airframe. it also makes the airframe boated. take a box and put 2 marbles in it. note the free space available. then put a pingpong ball in it. note the difference.

total thrust of 2 F414 is a little more than double that of the F135. compare the volume of 2 F414 with that of a single F135.

Specifications (F135-PW-100)
* Length: 220 in (5.59 m)
* Diameter: 51 in (1.29 m)
# Maximum thrust: 43,000 lbf (191.35 kN) max, 28,000 lbf (124.6 kN) intermediate
# Specific fuel consumption: 0.886 lb/(hr·lbf) or 25 g/kN·s (w/o afterburner)

Specifications (F414-400)

* Length: 154 in (3,912 mm)
* Diameter: 35 in (889 mm)
Maximum thrust: 22,000 lbf (98 kN)
# Specific fuel consumption: (for F404, F414 is more efficient)
# Military thrust: 0.81 lb/(lbf·h) (82.6 kg/(kN·h))
# Full afterburner: 1.74 lb/(lbf·h) (177.5 kg/(kN·h))

do the math. 😉 assume the jet engine is a perfect cylinder.

so why did LM choose the massive single engine design, the answer is (as usual) the VTOL requirement.

still far lower than what they would have bought in soviet era.

a very informative article on DARIN II and project tiger (the sea harrier upg)
http://frontierindia.net/an-insight-into-darin-ii-and-project-tiger-fighter-aircraft-upgrade-programmes-in-india

show me one aircraft that hasn’t suffered long spells of grounding and I will show you the yeti. 😀

the widowmaker epithet was misinformed then and it is so now. undoubtedly there are problems with the mig-27 but those are not insurmountable ones. if you have noticed the attrition rates have noticeably come down this decade compared to the 90’s. the upg addresses many of the problems, especially those related to SA.

floggers also have had their share of bad luck, I remember an incident from kalaikunda AFS, where a pair of mig-27’s taking off together crashed into each other due to a sudden strong cross wind and the wreckage lit up another one on the tarmac. 3 aircraft totaled with 2 loss of lives due to a freak incident.