My understanding of the 8 aircraft reduction is that the funds are needed to productionize the RBE2 AESA which is currently still a kind of prototype though its flying in the Rafale since 2003.

AESa antenna will be esier to plug on Rafale that is far away more advanced electronicly than EF2000!

and all AESA in the world are prototype, and always are being develloped constantly! with the second phase of devloppement since 2 years and an envelloppe of 90 millions euros, i don’t see any european equal this days, and for years!
Thales have the upper hand on military electronic systems in europe, no one can match them!

so i’m always enjoying a joke whan you talks about EJ200 scorpion, really, what is the plot? EJ200 SFC is the worst in the modern jets world, and yours biased datas about max thrush are silly, especially when you are talking about a plane who started at 9.7t and today reaching 12t..

ef2000 shouldn’t look at RR to make thier planes engines, but at GE or Pratt, especially this days!

as about Trnache 3???? austria want no more ef2000, and saudies are switching to less hypocrits dealers!

TRANCHE 3?

why? BAE is a british compagny??? no more, get a look at shareholding! today british haven’t a big military national industrial independent leader!

i like aussies, they build nothing, get knoked by US adds on thier “magical” fighters, and have pain in the a.. for the next 30 years of using it!

yes F35 isn’t a great plane and will never be, only things it will be able is to stream lots of money into maintenance, i like aussie desert…

no one talk about one word, INDEPENDENCE, for somes as French it mean something, for others mean nothing, question of wich side you are of!

Today Rafale won on every foreign bids and lost only because that wasn’t their usual Clients, let’s wait when Rafale will bid to thiers Clients, i recall that Dassault is the sole manufacturer enough succefull in output fighters to save the european industry image worldwide in the last 50 years against Soviet and US products!

Well, first the IDF have nothing to do over unifil heads troops, i think the message was understood, course they do it no more!

Second from our ritalian italian fanboy, french troops will soon retire from this mess, in feb Italians takes over, and french troops will reduce slowly to none their troops, first because UN rules are blured, and that france know that hezbolah is rearming to do same mess later, so Israel have to defend, and if needed help from the french friends, as when france asked to israel to finish osirak and have money to get them shems and where to bomb saddam nuke power plant!

ther are things for medias, and reality, france always backed Israel, under pro arabian cover, Lebanese now can start their jobs, if not, the scums of hezbolah will have not only IDF bombing them but lots of others !

On the basis of both wing loading, and thrust loading, the Typhoon has the full package. Definitely at the top of my list from a pure agility point of view. The only machine that could consistently out-perform the Typhoon in a close engagement would be the F-22 (which also has thrust vectoring engines).

what kind of eurofighter, the early 9.7t one or the actual turtle reaching 12t?

because eurofighter “agility” is a waste word this days! even a nimrod could outurn a european ridiculously called “typhoon”!

a bit like if magic Jordan could do stealth pass while being 20% overweight!

just a simple logic!

the fabulous Mirage G8, nothing else can come close!

The announcement was apparently made during a two-day visit to Saab’s facilities in Linkoping, Sweden. Lunde notes that “…the Gripen so far has been the true outsider compared to the Eurofighter and the F-35 Lightning, but the recent announcements by Gripen on the prospects of a dedicated “N” version, and a long and patient process of building trust and support in Norway seems to be paying off.”

the swedish Minister visit a Saab factory in sweden, and would claim Rafale superiority, there? lol, you are as DID, far to understand how politics words works!

this minister name F35 because they are involved into, and the air farce one, because Bae is purposing big gifts on their lobby works there, Dassault purposed nothing yet, first because nothing changed about F35 norway commitments, and second , because norway didn’t start a opev for other birds!

Claiming the rafale is out of the contest when there aren’t any contest, when a guy visit a gripen factory is as childish as claiming DID is such a seriousness contender for world aerospace journalism!

http://www.norway-nato.org/news/010506.htm