Come on Guys! 

The article is very wrong about the Indian competition, the Eurofighter and Rafale are the the two remaining aircraft in the Indian Fighter Competition.

 

The F-18, F-16 and F-15, Su-35 and Gripen  were  dropped, for failing to meet the requirements......

 

This seems to be a cut and paste of James Dunnigans Dec 23, 2010 article, and was based on a December/ November wikileaks release, which has evidently been proved false!

 

GET IT RIGHT!!!!!

 

 

 

This seems to be a cut and paste of James Dunnigans Dec 23, 2010 article, and was based on a December/ November wikileaks release, which has evidently been proved false!

 

GET IT RIGHT!!!!!

 

 

Trying again ... I was trying to say that the "failing to meet the requirements" was more likely the failure to be willing to pay the necessary bribes to the usual corrupt officials to be found in most third world countries.

 

.]

Ah yes, the usual 'it must be bribery since US companies didn't win' line. If bribes were the way to do things, I guess Boeing and Lockheed Martin have paid the most bribes in India since they have won the most number of defense contracts since 2005. Other than hot air on misinformed forums, there is not an iota of proof about any bribery.

 

About meeting requirements-well are the Super Hornet or F-18s optimised for supersonic combat against Flanker derivatives that the Chicoms are fielding? Will they still be relevant for the 30-40 years that India will be fielding them? Do they have the sufficient thrust levels for sustained operations in High Altitudes?

Unlike some other planes. :-P

(yes, it's cheap... so sue me) 

The Eurofighter is a nice place and suits India.

 

As for the Rafale, it made it to the final draw despite the early reports about it being dropped, and there wasn't any obvious bribery like in Brazil, so either it is because they wanted to counteract the embaressment or because it actually suits India.

 

Personally I think the Super Flanker was dropped because of maintainance issues and relying too much on one supplier, whereas America won't release as much technology and is also unreliable as a supplier. Gripen doesn't offer enough prestige and is too focused on air to air,  and the Rafale is far too expensive (and still somewhat incomplete, though maybe by the time this deal starts rolling it won't be), but fulfills some of the requirements and as such has been picked to 'compete' against the EF to improve the offer... or as some guy on the internet said, 'to let it be known that the decision might not be sane'.

Also, saying that any aircraft has proved itself in the Libya operations beyond the basic is an overstatement after the barrage of rockets took out the key parts of their air defense network. Which is a bit of a pity (but overall a good thing as it saved lives)  as it would have been far more interesting to see who were first into the fray otherwise (also, I believe the Mirage went before the Rafale, but I might be wrong about it).

sorry, barrage of missiles (from ships)