If my memory serves well, that is why dassault didn’t even bother making a proposal for Japan

Even in the heat of combat I would say that would still be a concern. How do you choose between being shot down and crashing the wrong side of the front line or burning your engines out and – crashing the wrong side of the front line?

considering the number of times the Mig-25s managed to do their job and escape, over various countries, you should forget a bit about “burning engines”… the aircraft obviously did its job quite well, staying out of reach of most interceptors who tried to catch it

Hotdog, Macedonians and Bulgarians are about as much the same nationality as Serbians and Bulgarians.. they’re all slavs, living in nearby territories… but that’s about it. one may say they’re “cousins” yet, you’ll find very little if any macedonians to consider themselves as bulgarians and vice versa

one may be able to understand the other while speaking each his own (different, not same) language (that’s basically how I used to communicate with my bulgarian teammates here in france… and it worked quite well), but still, even if we’re “close cousins”, we’re not the same nationality nor the same ethnic population.

as for albanians and serbians looking alike, well, just about as much as french and serbians looking alike… one head (more or less) a couple of arms, legs, etc… 😀

another thing, where is it written that, to join NATO you have to buy this or that piece of kit?

To operate with other NATO countries, you need compatible communications systems, whiich can be installed to suit your needs, but the airframe you use can come from, basically, anywhere

ok, let’s see, India is a partner for a “Indian version” of the PAK-FA if I’m not mistaken… the FGFA, right?

They plan to introduce the first lot before 2020 (on wikipaedia it’s said 2017, but I guess somme delay from that date is more than likely), anyway… the MMRCA that is supposed to get into service in about a couple of years should stay there for, what? 25? 30 years? more? Now what’s the point in ordering an outdated 4.5gen piece of junk, they’ll keep for some three decades or more if they are about to get that new fancy techno-thingy full of “must have gadgets”, and in which they are partners already?

As for protecting their own 4.5gen.. considering that France likes pretty much to stick its nose in other nations business (not unlike the USA, UK and other rich nations), and considering that, to do that in a politically acceptable way (internal politics, you go blasting the other country to stone age, but in your own you say you’re ona peace mission and, most of all, you have no casualties of your own) you need a force that is waaay superior to the other guys’ one, how do you imagine to do so for the next 40 years with a fighter that, according to all the “board spoecialists here” are already obsolete today?

noo… you think that some 500 years of occupation may leave the occupied guys somewhat upset?:D

is it just an impresssion, or we’re runnings in circles for a whole bunch of pages by now? 😀

ok guys, I took data from wikipedia… which cites LM as sources, among others..

as for A or C figures, they give about the same distance per ton of fuel burned (in the range between 260 and 290km/ton of fuel burned)… you can turn it they way you want, it is as good as throwing fuel overboard regardless of the version (A, B or C) because you use an engine that’s designed that way: very powerful, indeed, but not economical to run by any standard.

When I compare it to the rafale, it’s just an example of a relatively recent fighter built in a conventional way. Be it the M, or the B or the C version, you get similar aerodynamics, same engines and not too different mass (the M being heaviest of the three), you get pretty much the same fuel efficiency.

again: you want thrust, it HAS to come from somewhere… higher temperature while burning fuel (more pressure and better thrust), which is limited by the resistance of the materials used for making of the “hot” engine parts, and/or more fuel burned, increasing the mass that you accelerate to generate thrust… there’s no other way