India is in the market for New Fighters. What would you buy????

Dan wrote:
wrote:

On Nov 6, 2:36 am, Roger Conroy wrote:

On Nov 5, 11:25 pm, (Harry Andreas) wrote:





In article . com,
Roger
Conroy wrote:

On Nov 5, 3:53 am, dumbstruck wrote:

On Nov 3, 3:24 am, Tiger wrote:

India's AF is looking to make a huge purchase & production deal. $10
Billion dollars for 126 aircraft. They are looking to replace
their Mig
21's. There are about 6 Firms/ planes up for consideration.
Eruofighter Typhoon
Saab Gripen
Boeing's F-18
Lock Mart's F16
Mig's 29 & 35
Dassualt's Rafale & Mirage series
So if you had $10 Billion to spend? What would you buy for your
force??
Keep in mind the needs of India, the potential foes & that any US
plane
come with political strings attached (like Pakastians f-16 deal).

Rough field capability would be a plus; do the Saab and Mig
offferings
still favor that? Eurofighter and Dassualt are probably very
motivated
to negotiate price, but maybe Mig most of all... logical winner?

Snip fantasy............
I'd say go with the SAAB. Avoid the political "strings attached" that
come with buying from "Uncle Sam" or from "Brother Russia".
The Grippen is a really good 5th generation multirole fighter, way
ahead the F16 and F18 are antique designs that are really at the end
of their useful life. The TCO is a lot lower too and so is ease of
maintenance.

Fantasy indeed if you think the F/A-18E/F is an antique design.
What on the list is newer?
--
Harry Andreas
Engineering raconteur- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

The FA-18E/F is just the latest "upgrade" of a decades old design.
Sure it has all he latest bells and whistles but the basic airframe is
last weeks news!
Everything on the list is newer - except for (drum roll ...the
envelope please...) the F16!
The fundamental problem the US has is that their industry is so
heavily invested in the F22 and F35 that they have neglected the
market segment now served by the Grippen, Rafale, Typhoon, etc.


Why is that a fundamental problem?


They have ignored a large and growing market segment. No one actually
needs the top line fighters, but most countries do need serviceable and
adequate multi-role defense aircraft.

Dan

That reminds me of when Northrop tried to build a second line fighter
plane for the export market with the F-20 Tigershark almost thirty years
ago. In the end they couldn't find a single country that wanted to buy
a fighter plane that the US wouldn't buy for the USAF.

ALV