The Rafale has won this one for sure but winning is just the first step. Hard negotiations are waiting for the ‘Rafale International’ team as the final price is most probably much higher than what India is ready to pay so if Dassault and the partners don’t allow some flexibility in price negotiations , the whole thing could blow into their face. Its not like the Mirage 2000 upgrade deal, India has an alternative this time.

Was Rafale ever considured in Japan?

Japan buying a French fighter could be a funny joke.

Belgium, Holand, Norway and the Netherlands ordered 346 Vipers in 29 Jully 1975, Iran ordered 160 in Oct 1976, Israel ordered 75 in August 78, the first Viper build in Europe for the Belgium Air Force was flying December 1978 and was accepted by the BAF in January 1979. Before 1980 there were two European assembly lines churning out Vipers.

It has beaten the Mirage F-1 version with SNECMA M53. Had Dassault won this contract, we would not have seen the Mirage2000 ! Of course the Viper was far superior to Mirage F-1 at that time, a brand new fighter and the first with a fly by wire..

That’s another point. If Dassault significantly discounts their offer of 22 Rafales, I don’t imagine India and Brazil will want to pay the “regular” sticker price for their potential 126 & 36(?) units. So there’s potentially a lot of lost profit there.

Good point ! This would be an unforgivable sin . Dassault will certainly not fall into the trap of giving large discounts to one small customer to jump at a quick deal which automatically triggers in big customers mind the following: We have to do better and shouldn’t leave any money on the table.

First I would like to congratulate my sweedish friends with another sale 😉 Great airplane, no doubt abouut it.

What I find interesting are the pr.unit prices.
Rafale the most expensive at 150 m dollars
EF at 100 m
and Gripen at between 50 and 60 m.

Seems like Eurofigher are selling at loss while Dassault refuse to give anybody any discount. For that price Gripen looks like a great choice.

Switzerland has a very small air space to defend..Gripen will do the job.
Both Rafale and Typhoon are overqualified.

I think he meant fighter aircraft. And I beleive it’s the first independant fighter aircraft AESA radar in Europe at least.

EXACTLY…

What are you talking about? The Rafale’s performance in Libya was nothing short of stunning. Rafales were the first aircraft on the scene, attacking protected ground targets without support from jamming aircraft or cruise missiles- no other aircraft did this AFAIK. During the Libyan conflict, they were shown to be capable of cruising without afterburner for an extended period of time at M=0.9 with large bomb loads and external tanks, and there is no reason to believe that this was even the full capacity of the engines.

Really, it was likely the Libyan show that the Rafale put on that prompted the UAE to continue talks without the condition of an uprated engine.

What performance? against Kaddafi’s Vietnam era air defences..Come on mate if Dassault choses to use that ( Rafale’s Libya performance) as sales argument ,Rafale has already lost in India!

This is a state with active, accessible democracy. Voltaire, when in exile in England, once made the observation that England had a political system where every five years the people were free to choose who would dictate to them for the next five years. Not so Switzerland, it seems. The government can be forced to seek their approval of its proposals.

It makes sense to me to select an aircraft capable of replacing Hornet at a later point. Rafale and Typhoon would both outperform this aircraft. The Swiss people, however, may not approve of the cost of such an aircraft being ordered. I can see them rejecting a $4 billion or $5 billion bill to replace 20 or so light fighters if they are asked to sanction a Tiger replacement.

The Swiss will never buy any of these fighters without a referendum..
The rumor has it that the Swiss would reject this if they go to polls today so we will not see any Rafale or Typhoon in Switzerland until 2020 and beyond.