i have no idea my friend.

Lets talk truth? Production of Rafale in India will be costly. Very costly

A general rule I’ve heard mentioned on internet so take it with a grain of salt is that when dealing with local production contracts. You take the percentage of local content as a part of aircraft and you then add that percentage to the aircrafts base price.

If local content is 50 percent then you add 50 percent to the aircrafts cost. So a aircraft that costs 100 million bought straight from producer will cost 150 million if it has 50 percent local content.

Looks like there is a Eight billion dollar gap between what India wants to pay for 126 Rafale and what Dassault wants to charge for them.

http://news.yahoo.com/india-seeks-settle-french-fighter-jet-dispute-ahead-070944100–finance.html

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India has asked France’s Dassault Aviation SA to stick to the original price tag for fighter jets or risk losing one of the world’s biggest military aircraft deals, the Times of India reported on Tuesday.

Talks on the proposed purchase of 126 Rafale planes have been ongoing for more than three years to resolve differences over pricing as well as local assembly. The deal is back in focus as Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits France this week.

The deal was initially worth $12 billion but is now widely estimated to have jumped to $20 billion, primarily because of the implications of building some of the jets in India.

actually, there was, the Rafale M could very well be common to Aeronavale and RN, especially as there were discussions about making three carriers, one of which for the french. it was perfectly doable (and, in the end, would bring the UK somewhere with known performance, costs and delivery dates)

Of course, bashing the Rafale whenever possible as they try to sell the Typhoon would lack credibility, but, personally, I think they’d have spared themselves a lot of money, for better capabilities for their fleet than a bombtruck they hope to get one day

I don’t see how buying Rafale would have been in UK’s long term interest as compared to F35. You may save a few billion in cost but you end up being stuck with a 4.5 generation design that does nothing to position your countries aerospace industry for the future. The F35 has kept UK aerospace in the game for at least another two decades. Development costs of F35 is over 60 billion and there is no indication the cost of building a 5th generation competitor wont have at least 30 billion development cost and that would be best case cost scenario. So buying Rafale would immediately force UK into a 5th generation project in order to preserve UK aerospace industry. A 50/50 cost split between france and UK would cost UK between 15-30 billion. That is upfront costs before you even see the first planes that will then cost billions more.

Maybe and no, depending on what you mean by “stealth.” If by “stealth” you mean only passive rcs reduction then it’s no.
If “stealth” is a more generic term covering all observable aspects then maybe. I’d state low observable characteristics and very low observable characteristics in preference to “stealth” however.
I say maybe as i think you are ignoring countermeasures, electronic and physical, in your assessment. It is true that missile technology will continue to develop and there is a limit to a humans ability to withstand g, however as much as it is true that missile tech will develop so it is also true for counter tech and measures.

Well is there anything you describe that F35 wont have?

It still comes down to a belief that there will be a counter to stealth / low observable / whatever found that will result if a return of close in dog fights of old.

The reality is even if that occurs the winner in that case will be a unmanned fighter capable of 20g+ maneuverability. We have been at 9g limit caused by human pilot for decades now. The only reason planes haven’t pushed past 9g limit is because the human pilot mean doing so provides no benefit.

A potentially good airplane. Yes. Do we have a thread for this beast ?

@Siddar:
You are spot in. Except that the market is not out. The C130J is a dedicated answer to large users like the USAF with Historics, tactical and budgetary variables playing hard on it.

Less demanding users (in term of nbr of sorties/year) and specific markets might re-invent the style with their own specifications. For example in Brazil, by switching to civil a turbofan design, they simply compensate the economy margin of a turboprop as viewed by their longer average flight distance per mission, less dedicated manpower cost and less turnaround overall time (if we consider that maintenance is a direct function of flight hours).

So the Herc is still reining on the market and thanks to EADS blind stray into its segment, a still very profitable product for LM (Just imagine how LM would have had a hard time competing only with Antonov and Chinese design). 😉

I meant to say the market for a larger C130 is out there. I forgot the there.

As you point out the A400 main problem is its cost it should have been built using existing technology and not as a back door subsidy to Airbus by having its fly by wire system being used for A350. No need for composites skin when aluminum is a better choice for unpaved landing strips. Using Canadian engines instead of French one in order to secure a Canadian order for the plane making the project less European and more International.

Those poor choices led to A400 being half the capability of C17 at 75% of cost with no real chance of sales as long as C17 is in production.

Can the F-18E carrier land with the stealth pod fully loaded?

NH90 from what I’ve heard. Over cost, massive delivery delays, underpowered when compared to new production helicopters available, first generation composite aircraft, breaks down to often, spares cost far more then were budgeted for, to many variants for individual countries. local assembly raising cost per helicopter, and a design mini maxed to original design spec in order to save weight that has limited potential for growth without a major redesign being undertaken.

NH90 was a important technical program for Europe but is shaping up as a flop as a operational aircraft.