Thanks, friend! I needed that extra ammo :p . And, talking
about inspirations, here how I think it all began for the J-10 to clear the
air here over its Lavi connections for once and for all times:

My theory as to how it really came about:

They (Chinese) needed something sharp and they needed something
“first class” and, the handsome EF-2000, my opinion, were the thing that did
it for them. I mean if I were one of the designers at Chengdu, Xian, or wherever, I’d go after
the EF-2000 design (to replicate it) anytime over an F-16 clone (Lavi).

IMHO, the canards, plus the rectangular intakes; “minus
one engine for fuel econmy of course”; are the telltale signs that it’s the EF-
2000 — and not the Lavi — that had inspired the J-10.

“The Chinese population, including those in the field of aeronautics,
engineers designers and such, have ready access to western aviation
magazines such as AFM, Air International, Jane’s, etc., and the shock and awes of awesome
western 4th generation fighters fired up their imaginations hugely.”

JH-7 verses the Tornado for instance; and the Mirage-2000 was
of course a huge inspiration on the Chinese aviation industry in the 60’s.
There were plenty rumors back then of replicating L’Mirage-2000.

Yes pics inspires us. And AFM inspires all of us!

.

I’ve noticed in aircraft design that something similar to convergent evolution in nature takes place in aeronautics- sometimes the solutions to the same problems aren’t all that diverse and that results in aircraft that look similar. For instance, a chin intake would be dictated by good high-Alpha characteristics, the canards would be dictated by the need to offload the delta wing and improve maneuverability.

Anyone got a picture of that A-7 in Pakistani markings?

The engines seem awfully smokey for a fourth generation fighter- are the engines early mark variants?

I don’t think so. As recently as October 2005 a task force was heavily critical of the lack of supersonic targets in tests/exercises by the US Navy.

But there’s nothing to stop someone from using Galileo signals for military purposes, right? Like how GPS signals are broadcast over specific frequencies?

I recall reading somewhere that around 2008 or so manufacturers were going to come out with receivers that can use both GPS and Galileo signals for increased navigation performance. Theoretically someone could use both the military GPS signal and the Galileo civilian signal to improve the accuracy of weapon, no?

This was one of my favorite kitbash projects of all time. I used the ARII 1/144 scale RA-5C Vigilante kit as the basis for what a modernized heavy attack Vigilante might look like. I won first in the scale back about 4 years ago at the North Central Texas IPMS show.

Basically it has the following features:

-Reprofiled nose radome for the terrain-following/attack radar
-More sturdy nose gear to handle the increased gross weight
-LANTIRN pods under each engine intake
-A multitude of ECM/EW antennas all over the airframe
-Paveway III series 2000 lb laser-guided bombs, 2 under each wing
-Light outboard pylon for self-defense Sidewinder missiles
-Chaff/flare launchers on the aft fuselage decking