I’m not sure on the value of fighters controlling drones versus a ground based operator doing it.

AH-64 will have ability to control grey eagles and smaller shadow UAV added very soon so well get some actual information on the value of the concept.

This thread has been far more imformitive then i expected.

Seems India maybe after Predator C.

http://www.thequint.com/technology/2016/06/09/modi-in-us-india-formally-asks-us-for-predator-c-combat-drones-general-atomics-avenger-report

F35 engine basically predestines a eventual heavy western fighter with a max take off weight of 120k pounds.

As the power of engines increase the engines will end up spending a large portion of there increased power pushing larger planes. This allows the engine to shrink retaliative to the plane and free’s up more internal space for fuel. Giving the plane longer range while also putting some of the increase into an also higher power to weight ratio.

Given the large scale industrial commitment to the f18 engine size and the f15 engine size you will see planes designed around those engine sizes and not engines designed around new planes. New twin engine planes using those engines will tend to exhibit a growth in max take off weight as a result.

As I said earlier I could possibly find such a concept appealing as an hat trick to counter the airborne high power radars envisaged for the proposed US 6gen fighter (that I found an absolute, complete, total and ludicrous madness by itself anyway).
Imagine submunitions ejected just before the missile enter in Laser effective range and approaching it from different angles: power laser for their own way of working just can’t focus over more than one target so some of them would surely pass.
It would however work in the opposite way than Hopsalot imagined, several ammo for just one target but in the end is a single (although big) missile anyway.

This is only going to work if laser is short range enough for you to do the above. if isn’t it will foil your plans by shooting down missile before any sub munitions can deploy. You would have been better off sending multiple missiles in that case.

There aren’t 60 total orders. Most countries only expressed interest in a future purchase

I see what your saying, the foreign sales are not firmed orders yet only the ones from Brazil and Brazil was responsible for the delay in testing because of lack of funds. This seems to be a good plane but unless it gets some decent sized firm orders fairly soon it likely wont achieve the critical mass on the production side needed to compete on price with C130J.

Cost is not the same as price. They wont bank 30 million directly on each plane.

They have $1.7 billion invested and 60 total orders. It means they have to sale planes at well above production cost in order to repay the initial investment by Embraer. C130J seems to be selling in the 70-80 million range. If KC390 sale price is well above C130J it will struggle to gain orders.

In the end it comes down to the price Embraer will charge for the plane aka as the cost the buyer will pay. Versus the price LM will charge for a C130J.

It would be really helpfull for KC390 if it could land a decent sized order from one of the other BRIC counties.

Three times as many of the people polled in an American poll would prefer 1,000 jobs to be created in an American-owned factory in USA rather than 2,000 jobs being created in a Chinese-owned factory in USA. Which would you prefer?

I would prefer more jobs in general over ownership except for key industries.