As for Russia, they are still strong enough to spank France, Germany and UK all at the same time and still have enough left to go at it with someone else.

Excluding Russia,

French long-range strategic transports? French transport helos? French tactical airlift? French CAS as good as Harrier GR.7? Anything French up to the GR.4?

I’ll give you the two squadrons of M2K-5 as being fantastic A2A assets (you can keep the unupgraded Mirage 2000C variants, thanks), but I wouldn’t swap anything else that the RAF have, or have planned in future, for the counterparts across La Manche.

The problem with a lot of people’s opinion is that it’s shaped by fast jets and WVR dog-fighting capabilities.

1)UK’s long range transports are not that great either, C-17 has proved itself and thats why they had to hire the Ukranians with An-124 to lift their troops
2)Although I do agree that UK has better striking capabilities with Tornadoes and Harriers, these would first have to face up to Mirages before they could even think about taking on anything else. British AA capabilities are frankly pathetic although it’s striking capabilities are probably the best in Europe. If anything, UK’s AA capabilities are way France’s, Sweden’s and Turkeys, I do consider France, Sweden and Turkey as having the best AA capabilities in Europe.

I confess I dont know much about the L one but the AMX have some quite advanced eletronics . To have a proper idea of the AMX-M I think you should all look at the venezuelan one. I think AMX is superior to the Su25 ( SU-39 IM not that sure…their IR jammer is cool!!) not in payload but in equipments , it has onboard jammer , colored MFDS can carry antiship missiles , lot of internal spaces for future upgrades and 4000km of range ( with 3 external tanks ) and air refuleling , good agiloity ( better than A4 , A7 and F5 at low altitudes ) .Also the AMX-M has an interesting onboard equipment for training pilots like the ALX has

Well if you do not know about the other one then you really cannot compare them.

1)The Su-39’s performance surpasses A-1M in pretty much every way
2)The Su-39 besides carrying a whole wide array of ASMs and Bombs, it has BVR capability and does externally tow the Kopyo-25 radar, which is the same as the Kopyo radar mig-21-93 carries, gives it capability with R-73, R-77 and all kinds of R-27s as well as 100+km Kh-35Us and long range stand off Kh-58(I think 200+kms) ARMs. Good for a simple CAS aircraft wouldn’t you say?
3)the Sh-39 is quoted to cost around 10mn by Sukhoi, but it would probably be around 12-13mn, though the L-159 is quoted at more and the AMX at much more, and this is the AMX/A-1, not A-1M

The AMX proved very good when it was needed in the balkans and after the first weeks of war it was choosen for CAS missions instead of british Harriers. Maybe it is expensive but you have to see airplanes in action and even if the Su 25 showed it a lot also the AMX does its job

So did the basic Su-25 in places like Afghanistan and in conflicts around CIS. In Afghanistan, as soon as it entered service it was thrown into war.

L-159 ALCA’s ad slogan sounds: ***$8.5million plus a full tank.***

This pretty much gives the idea of a unit price, this time for L-159B trainer. L-159A attacker is also equipped with FIAR Grifo/L radar which together with add-on stuff makes additional $3.5 mil.

This was also the price offered to Slovak AF to reequip its trainer fleet. The very much pushed Hawk 100 was offered for $18-19 mil., the Hawk 200 with APG-66 went for some $23-24 mil and AMX went for $28 mil. Both a daylight highway robbery…

Just for comparison, a flyaway of a brand new MiG-29SE is $14mil and upgrade for SMT-I some $3 mil. plus.. SMT-II with a Zhuk-M radar count additional $4mil. (at least). Of course, the operating costs are several times higher as with the AMX.

I think the L-159A was offered for much more to countries like India, not sure, I ‘ll have to dig it up. Though the L-159A is much more inferior to the AMX in terms of performance than to talk about the basic Su-25 or even the A-1M or Su-39.

Wow, my bad, I thought Japanese F-4Js and F-15s as well as F-2s were all equipped with AIM-120. That would change the scenario heavily. Does Japan plan to equip it’s fighter with AIM-120?

Yes, I mean the Japanese probably have one of the largest and most sophisitcated ASW capabilities in the World, I mean just one example is that they operate no less than 100 P-3Cs which are due to be upgraded in the future. I mean around 200 F-15s to be upgraded in the future, probably 100++ F-2s and despite it’s large cost and etc it’s still probably going to be superior to the J-10 or the Ching Quo. They have many more AWACS and etc than Taiwan and South Korea combined and China has nothing.

I do agree, Japan will be hard tocatch up to.

It’s potentially good to replace those, but for export market, I don’t think it has a chance, why?

1)It’s pretty large and has better performance than any other AJT out there, however it’s problems lie in American parts which can be easy for sanctions and such
2)It’s high cost, I think it costs even more than the expensive Hawk, not only that but it’s attack capabilities are not that great and it does not have any BVR weapons or weapons with it like JDAM, even if they did, those are still pretty easy for sanctions.

Hahahha SAAB got sore when they lost the Austrian Fighter competition so they really jacked up the price to keep Austrian Drakens flying till EF2000 would come into service 😛 But heyy that’s business.