The French always wanted to prioritise Air to Ground for their NextGen fighter, hence they left the initially Air to Air optimised Eurofighter programme.

Not a huge surprise that Rafale is further ahead in its Air to Ground maturity than Typhoon.

This doesnt mean that Rafale is better, just different. We will see which aircraft sells the most units and which ultimately proves to be the most flexible.

The surprise came when Typhoon got a spanking or two from Rafales. Not saying the Rafale is so much better in atoa, but the Typhoon is not as superior as some would like to believe, if at all.

Nic

eagle 1 ,

don’t take my post as an attack on Rafale! I didn’t say Typhoon is better than Rafale (in this post:D).

I was only demonstrating that this is the first time Typhoon has been used in this way in combat.

I am very happy for Rafale, and I find it astounding that the F22 is so hamstrung by the need to operate on its own!

actually not only can the rafale ‘make good use’ of awacs (whatever that means), but it can also be fully integrated in the combat system of (for instance) Forbin class frigates. Wiki says that Rafale weapons could be fired from the ship even without pilot intervention 😮

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbin_%28fr%C3%A9gate%29

Nic

Yes, i wondered if the fuselarge mounted IR was primarily there as a sensor. It would seem to give a better field of view than out on the wing.
Just after the -5’s started using the MICA IR in place of the Magic i spoke to a -5 pilot at Cambrai airshow who stated the IR version could be used as a sensor, they really liked the extra functionality that gave them.

I was thinking it was to be able to fire a Mica IR with less CoG issues than using one of those on the wings. I think FOV would be even better on the wings than on the belly, unless they want to be able to fire one and retain both as sensors.

Nic

We need to integrate the laser guided rockets asap.

Nic

The pylons are actually canted out, although perspective probably doesn’t help.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DfbUPDqtPVI/SXEPA1fKEBI/AAAAAAAAAj4/7nEHoU6urm0/s1600-h/outwrd1.jpg

From this website http://worldwidewarpigs.blogspot.com/2009/01/super-hornet-stores-story.html

Nic

How many F15Es have been lost to mechanical failures over time and what are the probabilities that ones happen just when a F15E is flying over Libya?

Nic

Judging by the pic, I don’t know why they put the word ‘land’ after the word ‘crash’. And yeah most definitely a mechanical failure :rolleyes:

Nic