And I have to agree.  While I think the Gripen (NG or otherwise) would do just fine with Brazil, Sweden is unable and unwilling to put up the sort of tech transfer as France is with the Rafale.  It's a good deal, and since it's more than the US is willing to offer, Brazil should take it.

 

And while I see where Deici's going with this, I think the Rafale would do all right against a Su-35 on the basis of pilot quality.  French pilots are very good; I've seen them personally enough times.  The Flanker probably has an advantage in long-range air combat (mainly because that's what it's designed to do), but in a knife fight, the Rafale would tear it apart.  As many licks Spectra takes--true or not--I would still lay odds that it's better than anything the Russians have.

 

But when it comes to this, I'm a fanboy...though I prefer the term "aviation enthusiast."

sentinel :

 

LMAO!  are you joking or what? The Gripen would be a game changer in Latin America. It would have no equal, and the only plane that will pose a serious threat in the region would be the SU-30, if it had well trained pilots, which Venezuela does not have.

 

Sentinel: "The Flanker probably has an advantage in long-range air combat (mainly because that's what it's designed to do), but in a knife fight, the Rafale would tear it apart." 

"The Flanker probably has an advantage in long-range air combat (mainly because that's what it's designed to do), but in a knife fight, the Rafale would tear it apart. "

 

USAJoe is right here, nobody goes looking for a knife fight against an SU-27/30/33/35, etc.  

 

All of the late model SUs have extremely good turning performance and the SU-35 will be a real beast.  There is no way to gain a meaningful advantage on these planes through superior maneuverability. 

 

If both jets have helmet mounted sights and highly agile missiles you will have an almost impossible job trying to achieve a favorable kill ratio, assuming the opposing pilots know how to fly their planes. 

 

In the Rafale's case, it lacks a helmet mounted sight.  Proceeding into a close maneuvering fight with a helmet mounted sight equipped aircraft without one yourself is an extremely poorly considered course of action.   The Rafales would be fighting at a sizable disadvantage in a close-range fight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

F22 has no HMS either.

And who would doubt its ability in WVR?

With electronic scan radar with instantaneous lock capability 60° off boresight, 5th generation awareness and LOAL missiles, HMS bring a very marginal capability in WVR.Still good for mechanical scan radar equiped fighters or air to ground missions.

 

SU30 due to its one magnitude bigger passive RCS and inferior conventional ECM, have not first lock on a Rafale F3 even with RBE2 PESA in AtoA configuration.With AESA RBE2 disadvantage of SU30 increase even more.
Period.

fighting at a distance, with effective co-operative control (esp passive) means a significant shortening of the sensor gap.  in combination that fundamentally translates to an assisted shot.

it's a system event, not a patform event.

""Sentinel: "The Flanker probably has an advantage in long-range air combat (mainly because that's what it's designed to do), but in a knife fight, the Rafale would tear it apart." 

 

 

What part of the above statment don't you understand you fool. Stop your trolling and fabracations and get back to reality.

HMS is not a garanty of first shoot and above 60° of boresight energy of missile is degrading reducing PK.

Rafale has no HMS for the same reason of F22 since we have total awareness, an electronic scan array, and LOAL missile ability.

HMS would add efficiency maybe in few % of real WVR engagement.It is value engineering.

The Rafale and F-22 have nothing in common in the A2A role, you stupid kid. The F-22 is in a diffrent league.

 

With that being said, the F-22 was designed to be a BVR, ASF with no equal, and becuase of this, its WVR capabilites were not a priority. This to me was a mistake, just like it was a mistake to not put guns on the F-4 in Vietnam, we learned the lesson the hard way. The HMS is the only weakness of the F-22 in Air Combat. If a Sukhoi with a well trained pilot, and a HMS/Archer can get WVR of the Raptor it will have the advantage.

F22 kept the gun much more expensive, but not the HMS.

See the picture?

French newspaper reports that Dassault cut Rafale prices by 40% in Brazilian F-X bid. Dassault denies report. < link >

 

UK backs Gripen NG bid because UK's Gripen workshare is 20% <  link >

 

Need second and third citation.