IIRC while Airbus could have chosen to rescue the A400M, Airbus threatened to renage on their contract and shut the program down unless the customers agreed to pay a much higher cost than was in the contract. Stupid customers gave in instead of insisting that Airbus deliver the goods as per the price in the contract (which would not have broken Airbus financially). Having said that, some of the problems stemmed from the partner governments wanting a new European turboprop to be developed, which increased project risk, when there was a perfectly good one available from P&W Canada, so I guess the problems were not all down to Airbus.

AIRBUS was busy with A350 at same time. and rising Euro. that twin challenges alone were very big challenges to overcome.

http://www.aspireaviation.com/2015/04/29/787-cash-burden/
In total, Airbus is US$8.31 billion more profitable than Boeing on a unit cost accounting basis over the past 5 years, using the euro/dollar exchange rate guidance given by Airbus at different time points.

What is happening to Embarer. is they cant enter new segments. there is no competitor against A-320/B737. The Brazil currency essentially in collapse. . KC390 order book is already very small to start with. There is no long term investment programe to replace imported components in Embarer products. The days of working as usual are coming to an end.

upgraded Sukhoi SSJ will further squeeze the margins.
Superjet will get $2.5b investments.

http://rbth.com/business/2015/04/29/russian_aircraft_superjet_100_to_receive_record-breaking_state_aid_45651.html
Russian aircraft Superjet 100 to receive record-breaking state aid

http://rbth.com/defence/2014/03/05/russian_produced_avionics_set_to_reduce_the_cost_of_the_supe_34837.html
Russian produced avionics set to reduce the cost of the Superjet and MS-21
The Russian concern ‘Radioelektronniye Tekhnologii’ (Radio-electronics Technologies) has submitted an application for EASA licensing
Plans are on to obtain EASA licensing for Russian onboard aircraft electronics for the first time by 2015. This will not only allow Russian avionics systems to enter the international marketplace, but also to replace imported avionics suites on future Russian airliners

Let me give this straight.. Does the deal talk about training Qatari technicians and pilots or employing French technicians and pilots?

it will take more than a decade for independent operation. see F-16E or F-16Q training history.

In case you did not know it an aircraft carrier is a SYSTEM consisting of men and machines. Russia has not been able to master the SYSTEM. And it appears that China is on the same path.

Russian teach Indians to operate a new aircraft on carrier in shortest possible time. It need tremendous experience to teach something so fast to some one else. Completely new cockpit and ground up design of aircraft ready for strike from day 1.

France also selling Saudi funded $3b arms to lebnanon. I will not be surprised Saudi place order for Rafale to replace tornadoes/EF/older F-15s.

i guess thats why so many russian ladies want to marry a UE citizen?

I am not sure what you are referring too.
The moment S300 is announced for Iran. France start speaking refunds for Mistral. it was dithering for long time. I am sure the Arabs must have told it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-20/putin-invites-saudi-king-to-russia-as-they-discuss-yemen-crisis

Russia is creating wall from Arctic to Red sea around EU to control Air and Sea.
http://news.usni.org/2015/02/25/nato-commander-breedlove-imported-russian-missiles-have-turned-crimea-into-a-black-sea-power-projection-platform.

The point is EU is never an independent entity. it can be controlled from outside by military force or oil or just large market like China.

Ofcourse the Su-34 cant mount the Kh-22 club.

But thats why i say the Su-34 is a much better multirole platform. Its way cheaper to operate over the Tu-22M.
It can carry Brahmos like missiles, its better for CAS mission and regular strike missions.

To have the Tu-22M primarly doing Kh-22 missions, is a very expensive and specialized platform in the first place.
A cold war relic.

Multirole plane has its own limitations. it cannot replaced specialized and larger planes. Tu-22 upgrade looks comprehensive with longer range weopons.

http://lenta.ru/photo/2014/07/04/modernization/#8

Better reply is your own motto: Lockheed Martin, because drop tanks stay during dogfights™

Weight difference between F-35 (and F-22) and F-15 depends by the way larger fuel tank size (+provisions for stealth): put F-15E conformal tanks on a C and its empty weight would rise up and surpass the Lighting again.

For the same reason navy fighters has a greater weight of a land based ones due to the provisions for carrier take off and landing.

To made a sum of the discussion at this point:

One single parameters is not enough to determine class and role of a given fighter.
Using range alone would made MiG29A, MiG29C and MiG29M fit into three different categories.
Same with weight: F-16A, F-16C block 50 bare and F-16E with conformal tanks will end up the same way.
Size also is heavily dependent on aircraft configuration: pure Delta as seen above look way shorter than others.

Probably we would better define them using comparative data like trust ratio and empty/loaded weight.

F-15C not just CFT difference with F-15E but also engine. F-15C cant be upgraded with heavier higher thrust engines and airframe of F-15C is not designed to carry heavy loads. I also think airframe of F-15C does not have as many hours as F-15E.

Hardly.. The RD-33MKs are very new, there can be no mention about some maintenance as of yet. Could be teething problems as the type is not widespread in service and experience is limited..

Those RD-33MK were flown on MIG-29K since 2006. since Naval operations for new type need much more training and Viki was delayed these planes are almost second hand in IN Service.