And yet the USA and UK still sent in cruise missiles and Growlers to support their air assets, even after the Rafale had already softened things up through air strikes.

US/UK are not that much in better financial condition to waste gas on too many air assets. Cruise missile most cost effective solution so they used it.

The Indians apparently did not find the F-16E up to par for the MMRCA, whereas they found the Rafale to be acceptable. Undoubtedly kinematics and take off and climb performance at hot and high conditions (Leh for example) came into play here.

Indian decision is politically motivated. more along the lines of some dubious value TOT. It has nothing to do airplanes. infact the ability of EU industries to support and upgrade these planes over 40 years is even more questionable.

The F414 is a significantly larger and heavier engine than the M88. So is the Kaveri. The LCA is a single engined aircraft. It has higher thrust per engine needs than the twin engined Rafale.

The point i am making is if you introduce heavier engine. aircraft weight is going to go up. so extra thrust is not necessary a bonus.
Infact M-88 was not even considered. The situation is practically hopeless. It was Eurojet that was second choice. They simply dont have any confidence in M-88 engine for single engine plane at this point. Not in next 15 Years. that much it will take to built all planes with GE engine if everything goes through assuming 20 planes per year from 2016.

It is far cheaper and faster to deal with one large order than dealing with smaller orders for mulitple airlines. from training of pilots/ maintiance and customization perspective.
Airbus/Boeing give volume discounts for large orders.
UAC does not need credibility. as long as Aeroflot has credibility & Profitability. as there fleet is very rapidly expanding. Just look at there current fleet expansion upto 2020. 200 aircraft ordered.
I am sure around 2018-2019 when MS-21/SS-130 production in full swing UAC is going to offload hundreds of Russian made planes on Aeroflot. and this the correct approach.
Big airlines, faster induction of new planes as there are huge number of pilots with facilities to train them, promote them, bigger profits, lower pmts, bigger discounts.

The UAE are the only one to have manifested any problems with the rafale’s engines and radar which was proved wrong in Lybia.
About the radar’s size I never heard apart from Forum’s members any official complaint about it. The solution to meet the UAE requirement was not about a bigger array, but to increase the power output which posed problem. One of the biggest reason why some are advocating for a 9T engine is not so much to provide more thrust but to accomodate bigger power output requirement for the electronics.

Rafale poor showing in Libya may have prompted UAE to say it is unworkable. before they were giving benefit of doubt to this underpowered aircraft but not now.

Well just because Aeroflot orders 1000 plane of MS-21 it wont change the fate of MS-21 in any signigicant way , on the contrary Russian Aviation industry will be accused of promoting their own brand in local airlines through government pressure since they cant sell it abroad , you hear people saying the same for Comac C919 as all orders so far are government.

MS-21 atleast has few international customers for now.

I am assuming Aeroflot has a business need for single aisle type in the numbers you mentioned.

I keep telling this the best way to sell your product is to beat your competition by building better products and cost effective prices and compete and win.

MS-21 will gain more respect and more customers if it competes and wins against likes of A-320NEO , 737 MAX and C919 . it will do good for their industry.

Some one should put this messages to them , either you will compete and win or you will perish there is no 3rd option.

Business need is created. Aeroflot has some level of credibility now and is part of Skyteam. by ordering 1000 planes it will lower the unit cost of airplanes to better compete with larger production volume of Airbus/Boeing.
Lower price of airplanes lower financing pmts. so lower tickets prices. so greater market share. with greater market share lower demand for Boeing/Airbus planes in other airlines.
And 1000 plane order will create additional incentive for subcontractors to invest further potentially creating capacity 2000 more planes.
(Most of Airlines in EU are essentially bankrupt except for some big).
There is nothing wrong with single large user approach and creating monoply in certain regions.
VolgDenpr is doing with An-124 operations and its further orders.

fixed it for ya.
KJ-2000 will most likely not be used in civil aviation purposes. Keep in mind that KJ-2000 is a system not an airplane. Don’t know how many times people keep forgetting that.

how do u know that that Italian AWACS will not be used for Civil purpose? They want there own AWACS separate from NATO and more than likely to watch all the boats and illegals coming from NorthAfrica (that will soon become collection of failed states).
so they will most like want system that stays in Air maximium. Possibly 24hr continously for single plane with maximum range both Air, Ground and Sea. Not some midget system like G550/737.They need a giant AWACS with maximum power.
Russia has already demonstrated this level of endurance in 2 engine aircraft loaded with all electronic systems.

Even if Italy had any serious interest in Russian weapon systems(which I seriously doubt) the A-100 only exists on paper right now. In that form it most certainly won’t compete with the Wedgetail and CAEW that are already flying on multiple planes.

Finnmeca has more than $1B write down related to 787 work in single quarter and they have strained relationships with Boeing. Beoing/IAI has set subcontractor for there AEW. It will be like basically work from scratch if they have willingness to work with Italian industry.
Russian system will give them more opportunity for employment and technical contribution for Italian subsystems as current austerity wave from EU will destroy whats left of Industrial Italy.

KJ-2000 is obsolete with underpowered thirsty engines. you dont put giant AESA radar (Assuming its AESA as later A-50EI Antenna is enlarged) on unupgraded engines. I am not sure they have old airframes left to make it or even know the conversion.
A-100 has great future as soon as IL-476 airframes flies work will start on it.
And Russians have demonstrated 14hr to 24hr endurance with Tu-214SR/IL-300P. So there will be no issue with engines.
China neither has the money nor the will. for China Italy is just another country whose products need to be copied.
Russia simply offer more to Italy than China for those who understand it.

Lufthansa has 700 airplane fleet. Airfrance-KLM is equally big.
Aeroflot brand is good & financially sound but its fleet size even including subsidiary is way small now.
First order is to increase the order by Aeroflot to 1000 Planes from 126 planes. Once these 1000 planes are flown to global destinations with corresponding support network. Rest of airlines will follow suit. very big economies of scale required.

http://www.aeroflot.ru/cms/en/flight/plane_park
Aeroflot Group, considering its growth prospects, is to acquire the total of 126 modern Russian-built aircraft of various types through 2020.