The Mokopa long range heavyweight AT missile on the Rooivalk was envisaged a while ago, but the decision post Apartheid to not fit the original South African sighting system, and rather go for a cheaper French system due to budget constraints meant that the Mokopa, which is a Hellfire class missile, was not integrated.

The Mokopa I believe was developed after the shenanigans involving the refusal of the US to allow Hellfire to be integrated on to the Rooivalk for the British requirement, thus stalling the Rooivalks chances vs the Apache. The Rooivalk had emerged as a very strong competitor in the British competition, due to certain commonalities with the existing Puma fleet.

Either way, this latest development adds a massive punch to the Rooivalk.

And to answer one of the original posters questions of which sorts of countries have the power to do this: South Africa did work on single crystal casting in the late 1980’s with the aim, along with other improvements, of drastically improving and squeezing more power from the ATAR 9K50. This as part of the indigineous fighter project that was cancelled around the end of Apartheid.

This from a country with no prolonged aviation delevopment history at the time, although with a relatively advanced metallurgical industry.

Ahhhh …. a definition from wikipedia.

At least it may be a little less partisan than a company marketing department when defining one of its own products.;)

But then either you’ve not followed the various “debates” over the years, or just swallow marketing-speak wholesale.:diablo:

=Mildave;1685015]A 5 Gen fighter is an aircraft that uses stealth in order to ensure dominance of the battlefield by been able to detect, engage and kill its targets while evading detection by the enemy (and so the engage and kill never happen). That’s for me the basic definition.

Hey Military Dave.

Do you mean a Mig-31, using its data-link to hand off a missile solution to its non-emitting bretheren??????
Back in the day when Duran Duran were on top of the world?:cool:

Like EELightning said … pass the painkillers please.:rolleyes:

Swerve has got it right.

Anybody who believes that the ruling clique of the Saudi Royal Family would allow Israel to stage/refuel/land/operate over their territory for anything longer than the briefest time is living in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

They value their skins a little more than that. Talking politics is not quite the same as political expediency….

I would also assume that Iran has factored in a strike against their programme. I mean, they’re hardly likely to be quite as stupid or dull as some here would like to portray, now are they?….:rolleyes:

Ahh, and the Frenchman previous mentioned everything? No he did not, and many like him do not either! Yet you didn’t complain, because you liked what he said. You only opened your mouth when you read what I said, because you didn’t like that I said. With such a bias in your actions by quietly turning a blind eye to things where it suits your purposes, you are really in no position to judge my statements for their content of fairness, as you’ve proven yourself a very biased and unfair judge yourself. You are clearly a pot, and should refrain from calling kettles names.

Oh, do behave.

I have no idea what you’re prattling on about. What Frenchman? If you are referring to the poster before you, well then at no stage did he make such vacant assertions like your one here:

The Rafale is nowhere near as capable as the Typhoon

They each have strengths.

You then follow this up assuming that such simple things as sales figures are the only indicator of a combat jet’s prowess. The F104 sales record should help you out of your confusion.

Like I said …. nonsense.

Oh, and I have never been to France, and have no inclination to. You seem to have an island defensive issue that might require some looking into.:dev2:

Back on topic, with apologies to other forumites, I would think that with france and Germany now so intertwined at the heart of Europe, along with the capabilities of Spain and Italy, that this would be an indicator of possible future collaboration. Maybe a bit like the Airbus thingy.

Where this leaves Britain (hi, ppp!!;)) and Sweden I’m unsure of.

Perhaps the F-35 sub-contractor role is deemed sufficient to the UK, and perhaps that cleaned-up Gripen NG model/concept would be the route for Sweden.

I too am not wholly convinced that completely unmanned platforms for everything is here yet.

New photo.

I would agree, if they didn’t spend time and resources in a “smudging campaign” over the internet (which probably cost them more than building a wooden fence). Either you don’t care about the photos because times have changed or you do care because you want secrecy and try to smudge them. Doing both is contraddiction.

Sorry, I edited my post slightly Aspis, whilst you were answering.

I agree with much of what you are saying. But nevertheless, I think secrecy has taken a backseat to advertising these days. Especially when the costing analysis comes through.