MMRCA 2.0 - Updates and Discussions

[randomradio]

this SU 57 radar is the one they are claiming for SU 30 MKI upgrade lol.

• N036 Byelka AESA.
View attachment 17113slotted waveguide antenna array.

People keep comparing it to AN/APG-77,81 AESA on F 35, F 22 with its 1,552 TRM count without realising that western AESA are generation ahead of this thing.

• AN/APG 81 notch radiators( TSA)

View attachment 17114

notch radiators can take higher power loads... offer superior bandwidth, higher gain , higher directivity hence greater range, have better resolution, better ECCM , EW's capability , better LPI characteristics, higher operation mode etc.
• Here another probable Russian radar for upgradation for SU 30MKI

View attachment 17115

New Zhuk series AESA radars... going in for testing for MIG 35.
Those shinning ring radiators though ( lovely ) .... which do offer higher bandwidth compared to simple patch radiator we use to see in older russian AESA but nowhere close to notch radiators of there western counterparts.

This also show how far behind Russia still is in material, electronic & packaging technology compared to Europe & US. But since Putin propaganda brigade is strong nothing else matters.

What you see are only prototypes for testing, not production radars.

You will never see production radars. Not American, not Indian, not Russian, no one.

gaining total air-superiority in Pakistani airspace within 2 weeks

2-3 days.

 

[A Person]

What made you to think that F15EX's EW suit will inferior to Rafale? F15EX is an evolving platform and it's pretty new aircraft. A company made Growler will put inferior EW suit on its upcoming product?

The Growler approach to electronic warfare is totally different. Have one aircraft emit a lot of noise to provide cover for other aircraft in the flight group. It's a brute force approach.
SPECTRA doesn't try to drown out enemy radar signals, it instead attempts to fool them by messing with their returns, so that enemy radars can't get a solid lock. Instead of having one dedicated EW aircraft that is extremely vulnerable to radiation-guided missiles, exposing the rest of the flight group to regular attacks, each Rafale can protect itself.

EPAWWS might be an attempt at imitating what SPECTRA does, but it's a new domain that the Americans have not previously demonstrated any mastery of. Furthermore, the Rafale was designed with reducing radar cross section in mind. Of course it doesn't go as far as having a VLO form factor, but it's still LO. The idea was to reduce radar returns where possible so as to only have to have SPECTRA worry about a few "spikes" (like the carried stores; which is why integrating new weapons includes a trip to the anechoic chamber). The F-15 never had such a notion in its design goals, since it predates the stealth era. That means that EPAWWS starts with a handicap compared to SPECTRA: to obtain equivalent result, it doesn't need to be as good as SPECTRA, it needs to be even better! And honestly I doubt it's even half as good. The Americans love to project the idea of being more technologically advanced than everybody else, but really their main asset is that they have more money to spend, which allows them to invest in more R&D projects simultaneously. That means that they can be more advanced in a field that other countries have had to neglect; but it doesn't mean they always get to be further along in a field that another country has pioneered.

Boeing's shitshow with the Pegasus (compared to the nearly flawless introduction of the MRTT from Airbus) or its abject failure with the 737MAX (again, compare to the Airbus NEOs) should demonstrate that American technology isn't always better, despite being more expensive.

Also, keep in mind that the American idea of penetrating air defenses is to start by sending hundreds of cruise missiles to damage as many systems as possible, then send stealth planes to target what might remain, and then send the teen fighters. The F-15EX is developed with this paradigm in mind. The EPAWWS is meant to protect it against residual threats that might have been missed by the cruise missiles and stealth bomber sweep. It's not like the Rafale that has been designed to sneakily penetrate undamaged enemy territory alone if needed.

 

[Nikhil]

Some people still didn't get a train from the era of non alignment & socialism. Can't help,they don't see all these things.

I will disagree on this bit completely though.

 

[Hydra]

You can find them in our own forum. Look back a few pages in their threads.

Here's a Russian GaN seeker.

Sukhoi Su-30MKI

Astra is better than Derby in range. Derby is WVR or slightly better. The longer range derby is not used by India IMO. So, I don't see a reason to go for derby except as a test bed till Astra matures. R77 is slightly unreliable and hence derby is needed for that. But, in 2-3 years, Astra will be...

www.strategicfront.org

The tender is for twin engine medium weight, not single engine medium weight or twin engine heavy weight.



The F-15's maturity is irrelevant, because by then Rafale F4.2 will be out and it will be a generation ahead of the F-15.



India will have a very wide variety of indigenous weapons over the next few years. Subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic, both stealth and non-stealth. Long before the F-15 can become operational in the IAF. We won't need American weapons.

AIM-260 is not ramjet, so it's automatically inferior.



There's nothing on IAF's opinions about Russian technology that's still under development. All you have read is articles from lobbies, like Ajai Shukla, who has a proven track record of lying and peddling American wares, to the point where he's even lied about that as well.

But it seems you are more than willing to believe MKI will get AESA radar right from the beginning. So that would mean MKI will get the radar long before the F-15 comes into Indian inventory. Hence the F-15 is a significant downgrade.

Russian GaN radar, Thats not a fighter radar.
No mmrca2 is for medium fighter, they didn't mentioned it weather it single or twin engine.

On what basis you are telling f15 development is irrelevant?
Regarding indian air launched weapons, i dont see other than saaw & few gravity bombs nothing else going to get clear for production in the near future. And mmrca is atendering process, those who participated are redy to marry the terms and conditions which set IAF or else they will not even participate it. So if USA is bringing f15, they are bound to integrate indian designed non nuclear weapons, that claw will be there in the contract and if they are not ready to accept it the they will be expelled from tender.

In one of the foreign defense forum, there was a pakistani memeber who always boasted about jf17, according to him jf17 is the best fighter in the asia since it has DSI. Please dont think like hime. Air breathing is one type propulsion, what makes meteor deadly is its no escape zone, not the propulsion. You cannot tell that AIM260 will be inferior based on its propulsion.

 

[Lolwa]

Our relationship with USA should not pivot around a single person,what will happen after Trump then? We need f15 i beleive,and we have to purchase it all too. Once agreement has made with sufficient claws on weapons and usage no American President can pull out unilaterally.

And Trump is also a highly unpredictable,if he strike a good deal with Chinese he will start honeymoon with Xi.

Lastly, Democrats may choose Kamala Haris,the she is a known for her anti Indian sentiment.

That's what I would want personally. Diplomacy should never be personality based and I agree on that completely. The problem is that the majority of the Democrats leaving Tulsi Gabbard are basically bought out by the Chinese and Pakistani lobby or atleast hold some influence. If Trump loses and the chances seem pretty huge because of all the voter fraud the democrats will do we won't have an pro-Indian regime to ally with. American politics has been so toxic these few years that we might be the biggest losers if Trump loses. The democrats will give a lot of breathing space to the Chinese. And their deep state is experiencing schizophrenia from whatever I have understood.

 

[Hydra]

The Growler approach to electronic warfare is totally different. Have one aircraft emit a lot of noise to provide cover for other aircraft in the flight group. It's a brute force approach.
SPECTRA doesn't try to drown out enemy radar signals, it instead attempts to fool them by messing with their returns, so that enemy radars can't get a solid lock. Instead of having one dedicated EW aircraft that is extremely vulnerable to radiation-guided missiles, exposing the rest of the flight group to regular attacks, each Rafale can protect itself.

EPAWWS might be an attempt at imitating what SPECTRA does, but it's a new domain that the Americans have not previously demonstrated any mastery of. Furthermore, the Rafale was designed with reducing radar cross section in mind. Of course it doesn't go as far as having a VLO form factor, but it's still LO. The idea was to reduce radar returns where possible so as to only have to have SPECTRA worry about a few "spikes" (like the carried stores; which is why integrating new weapons includes a trip to the anechoic chamber). The F-15 never had such a notion in its design goals, since it predates the stealth era. That means that EPAWWS starts with a handicap compared to SPECTRA: to obtain equivalent result, it doesn't need to be as good as SPECTRA, it needs to be even better! And honestly I doubt it's even half as good. The Americans love to project the idea of being more technologically advanced than everybody else, but really their main asset is that they have more money to spend, which allows them to invest in more R&D projects simultaneously. That means that they can be more advanced in a field that other countries have had to neglect; but it doesn't mean they always get to be further along in a field that another country has pioneered.

Boeing's shitshow with the Pegasus (compared to the nearly flawless introduction of the MRTT from Airbus) or its abject failure with the 737MAX (again, compare to the Airbus NEOs) should demonstrate that American technology isn't always better, despite being more expensive.

Also, keep in mind that the American idea of penetrating air defenses is to start by sending hundreds of cruise missiles to damage as many systems as possible, then send stealth planes to target what might remain, and then send the teen fighters. The F-15EX is developed with this paradigm in mind. The EPAWWS is meant to protect it against residual threats that might have been missed by the cruise missiles and stealth bomber sweep. It's not like the Rafale that has been designed to sneakily penetrate undamaged enemy territory alone if needed.

I have asked a query, how spectra will be effective against AESA radar? If AESA radar changes its frequency & phate instantaneously, how apectr will generate cancelation signals? Agains AESA radar currently the only reliable jamming techniques is flooding it with white noice, Growler is the only fightet sized platform capable to do it effectively. And please dont keep Growler & Rafale in same leage, rafale is a fighter jet with pretty good EW system & Growler is a formidable EW attack aircraft capable enough to blind multiple threats including ground based radars. Currently its the only weapon of choice from NATO to penetrate s400.

 

[Picdelamirand-oil]

I have asked a query, how spectra will be effective against AESA radar? If AESA radar changes its frequency & phate instantaneously, how apectr will generate cancelation signals? Agains AESA radar currently the only reliable jamming techniques is flooding it with white noice, Growler is the only fightet sized platform capable to do it effectively. And please dont keep Growler & Rafale in same leage, rafale is a fighter jet with pretty good EW system & Growler is a formidable EW attack aircraft capable enough to blind multiple threats including ground based radars. Currently its the only weapon of choice from NATO to penetrate s400.

There are two basic techniques for doing LPI. Their goal is to make the Radar emission look like noise. Both techniques involve expanding the range used to transmit.

We can either spread out in time or spread out in frequency. In the first case we will have a very weak signal that lasts a very long time, the radar that emits it knows this and will compress the return so that it is exploitable but the enemy will have difficulty detecting it because the signal will be at about the same level as the noise, especially at long distance.

To spread out in the frequencies the F-22 radar changes frequency about 1000 times per second, once again it knows it and the enemy does not. The signal is strong and easily detectable, but it is brief and therefore appears as an anomaly that is not well understood.

To counter these two techniques and their combination, there are two types of RWR integrated into SPECTRA on the Rafale, a wideband RWR which is not very sensitive, and a super heterodyne RWR which is also used for interferometry which is very sensitive and very precise but which can only detect one narrow band at a time and must therefore scan the entire spectrum, frequency after frequency to be exhaustive.

The first system detects over the whole spectrum simultaneously and can therefore detect the F-22 strategy easily because its signal is strong, which compensates for the low sensitivity of the system. The second system easily detects those that spread out over time because they emit for a long time, which means that the scanning never misses them, and as the system is very sensitive, the detection takes place even if the signal is weak.

Well these are only principles, it's much more complicated than that. Moreover, in the planned developments of SPECTRA, Thales has proposed to make the broadband system as sensitive as the super heterodyne system....

 

[JustCurious]

Early detection doesn't ensure a kill, if thats the case f16 would have killed all mki in feb27, also monstrously long-ranged radar of mki too have ensured an f16 kill on that day. And rafale is llo when it is in clean formation, i don't think rafale will go in to enemy airspace with clean configuration to take down chinese air defense.

You are right about early detection. F-15EX would be an exceedingly hard kill in any theater. From what's evident so far, the upgrades to avionics wouldn't make slightest of difference to it inherent airframe disadvantages, thus RCS. So, under all circumstances (beast-mode or cleaner-config) Rafale's chances should be rated higher, logically speaking. In my limited understanding, Rafale's mission-capability to knockout S400 batteries, while ensuring survivability will be higher than any non-stealth aircraft. Rest we will come to know soon.

If Turkey vs Egypt-France-Italy ongoing confrontation in Libya is any indicator, we have bet on the right horse: Rafale.

F-15EX will continue to be an extremely potent, high-performance, high-impact, lethal, tough-to-beat & reliable bomb-truck for both A2A & A2G, sans any competition in 4th Gen. We simply don't need it because our Rafale + upgraded MKI combo would be just enough for us.

 

[A Person]

Currently its the only weapon of choice from NATO to penetrate s400.

Why then didn't NATO lobby for more people to get it? It's limited to USN and RAAF (which isn't in NATO). The USAF doesn't believe in EW aircraft anymore since they retired the Sparkvarks. Boeing uses it as an incentive to sell the Super Hornet but Washington would still prefer NATO members to get F-35 instead.

 

[Hydra]

Why then didn't NATO lobby for more people to get it? It's limited to USN and RAAF (which isn't in NATO). The USAF doesn't believe in EW aircraft anymore since they retired the Sparkvarks. Boeing uses it as an incentive to sell the Super Hornet but Washington would still prefer NATO members to get F-35 instead.

Usa is not lobbying only against s400, they are against all sort of military equipment purchase from.Russians.

 

[Lolwa]

We are set on radar. The F-15's radar will actually be a downgrade over the LCA Mk1A's radar, think about that. And the Rafale F4.2's radar will simply be incomparable. The Israelis are already a better source of radar tech than the US, and then we now have our own radar tech. Uttam is our future.

How would a bigger sized radar be a downgrade for us? I don't think it's inferior to elta 2052 because the Israelis themselves haven't replaced there f15 radars with the elta 2052 same for the f16I's. Rafale's radar will be incomparable to the f15ex because it will never have the range of the f15 simply because of its size. Detection is something that can only told practically. I don't know how Israelis are a better source of radar for us, When most of the Israeli radar tech has been handed down by the Americans themselves. Well I guess tech wise I wouldn't say it would help us in developing now but as a platform it will be the right platform the join their supply chain.

For example, while the Rafale's existing engine is superior to the F-15EX's engine, France is already willing to give us 100% ToT on an even more advanced engine for the K10, while we are negotiating for a true next gen engine with the British. So what use is the F-15's engine to us?

We are set on radar. The F-15's radar will actually be a downgrade over the LCA Mk1A's radar, think about that. And the Rafale F4.2's radar will simply be incomparable. The Israelis are already a better source of radar tech than the US, and then we now have our own radar tech. Uttam is our future.

There is no entering the American supply chain unless it's for outdated or obsolete stuff. Even if you did, you either do what you're told or they will take it away, just like they did to Turkey for the F-35.

I think all your expectations from the Americans are very different from reality.

The only true cooperation will be possible on next gen technologies, not current gen or previous gen tech when it comes to the Americans.

How is a lower thrust engine superior to a higher thrust engine? The French themselves haven't been able to improve its thrust. The M88 is the weakest of all the present 4th gen engines. The tech might be superior in terms of of internals but the f110 ge 132 is as modern as the M88 in terms of tech. The French are giving 100% tot because they themselves are not going to use this engine in the future apart from their rafale's. The only way we can enter American supply chain is to buying their junk and gain some confidence. Later on we might actually get to produce parts for the PCA if the U.S ever gets interested in selling us. Or we might end up buying scaf or the tempest so there's that.

Whereas Chinese AAD landscape is a difference ballgame altogether (derivative of SU- now highly improved) & something that big (F-15EX) on the radar will shine through so-early & so-prominently that it wouldn't be able to make the desired impact & might be lost altogether. LO aircraft is must-have for successful, inexorable A2G strikes.

The thing is not even the rafale's will be able to enter the airspace of the Chinese without doing a Dead/Deas operations. So f15ex are not a bad option considering they have the harms and jassm. And EPAWWS basically increases the survivability of the f15ex closer to the rafale's. The rafale's with that a2g loadout themselves might light up. For a true LO air craft the only good planes are the f35 and maybe the su 57 the rafale's won't really change the equation much considering active stealth is also with the f15 Ex

Actually, it is a behemoth that doesn't even begins to fit in our existing/planned force-structure

It actually fits within our force structure very well. I already said it replaces our jaguars,mig 27,mig 23 and to an extent the mig 29 and gives us proven ground striker which can carry a humongous amounts of a2g munitions. The rafale's replace our mirage,mig 29. While the tejas replaces our mig 21 and mwf will replace our mirage so I think it will fit our force structure. The problem is can our IAF afford them.

EPAWWS might be an attempt at imitating what SPECTRA does, but it's a new domain that the Americans have not previously demonstrated any mastery of. Furthermore, the Rafale was designed with reducing radar cross section in mind. Of course it doesn't go as far as having a VLO form factor, but it's still LO. The idea was to reduce radar returns where possible so as to only have to have SPECTRA worry about a few "spikes" (like the carried stores; which is why integrating new weapons includes a trip to the anechoic chamber). The F-15 never had such a notion in its design goals, since it predates the stealth era. That means that EPAWWS starts with a handicap compared to SPECTRA: to obtain equivalent result, it doesn't need to be as good as SPECTRA, it needs to be even better! And honestly I doubt it's even half as good. The Americans love to project the idea of being more technologically advanced than everybody else, but really their main asset is that they have more money to spend, which allows them to invest in more R&D projects simultaneously. That means that they can be more advanced in a field that other countries have had to neglect; but it doesn't mean they always get to be further along in a field that another country has pioneered.

EPAWWS isn't as mature as the spectra. But the U.S.A.F has been dedicated to the project and will add it on the f15c's that makes it pretty clear that in a war it will be able to take both aerial and ground adversaries and Boeing is claiming that the system will future proof it to the year 2040 and beyond. The Americans don't project the notion of technologically advanced because they "are" technologically advanced. The Americans have made the f22 and f35 not the French. The Americans are ahead on most parameters of military tech. The French never came up with the f22. People here undermine American tech like they are inferior to the even the russians. People here have drunk too much European kool-aid. EPAWWS will do the job the Americans have a pretty good lead on avionics and electronics. To compare them with European tech is just a cope they don't even share their premium technology and their inferior technology is on par with European premium technology so it's pretty clear who has the notion of being advanced. I'm not saying epawws will outperform spectra but it has a comparable mission objective of protecting the plane so I think it will do the job considering how the U.S.A.F have invested their money and energy into it..

 

[Hydra]

There are two basic techniques for doing LPI. Their goal is to make the Radar emission look like noise. Both techniques involve expanding the range used to transmit.

We can either spread out in time or spread out in frequency. In the first case we will have a very weak signal that lasts a very long time, the radar that emits it knows this and will compress the return so that it is exploitable but the enemy will have difficulty detecting it because the signal will be at about the same level as the noise, especially at long distance.

To spread out in the frequencies the F-22 radar changes frequency about 1000 times per second, once again it knows it and the enemy does not. The signal is strong and easily detectable, but it is brief and therefore appears as an anomaly that is not well understood.

To counter these two techniques and their combination, there are two types of RWR integrated into SPECTRA on the Rafale, a wideband RWR which is not very sensitive, and a super heterodyne RWR which is also used for interferometry which is very sensitive and very precise but which can only detect one narrow band at a time and must therefore scan the entire spectrum, frequency after frequency to be exhaustive.

The first system detects over the whole spectrum simultaneously and can therefore detect the F-22 strategy easily because its signal is strong, which compensates for the low sensitivity of the system. The second system easily detects those that spread out over time because they emit for a long time, which means that the scanning never misses them, and as the system is very sensitive, the detection takes place even if the signal is weak.

Well these are only principles, it's much more complicated than that. Moreover, in the planned developments of SPECTRA, Thales has proposed to make the broadband system as sensitive as the super heterodyne system....

AFAIK spectra jam.enemy signal by frequency cancellation, interference techniques were using to cancel the signal. Am i right?

 

[randomradio]

Russian GaN radar, Thats not a fighter radar.

No, but their tech has reached a level where they can put something complex in such a small space.

Air breathing is one type propulsion, what makes meteor deadly is its no escape zone, not the propulsion.

It has a high NEZ due to its propulsion.

 

[Lolwa]

Why then didn't NATO lobby for more people to get it? It's limited to USN and RAAF (which isn't in NATO). The USAF doesn't believe in EW aircraft anymore since they retired the Sparkvarks. Boeing uses it as an incentive to sell the Super Hornet but Washington would still prefer NATO members to get F-35 instead.

Because most of the offensives and SEAD/DEAD operations are done by the Americans rest of the nato basically sends its air force for airstrikes on the other targets. Even the French themselves did not do much SEAD/DEAD operations compared to the Americans. Same for the ground troops. Majority of the nato troops are americans with the rest of their countries sending their Special forces to joint operations with American spec ops. U.S believes in EW aircrafts. That's why their are inducting the NGJ jammer for their growlers.

 

[Hydra]

You are right about early detection. F-15EX would be an exceedingly hard kill in any theater. From what's evident so far, the upgrades to avionics wouldn't make slightest of difference to it inherent airframe disadvantages, thus RCS. So, under all circumstances (beast-mode or cleaner-config) Rafale's chances should be rated higher, logically speaking. In my limited understanding, Rafale's mission-capability to knockout S400 batteries, while ensuring survivability will be higher than any non-stealth aircraft. Rest we will come to know soon.

If Turkey vs Egypt-France-Italy ongoing confrontation in Libya is any indicator, we have bet on the right horse: Rafale.

F-15EX will continue to be an extremely potent, high-performance, high-impact, lethal, tough-to-beat & reliable bomb-truck for both A2A & A2G, sans any competition in 4th Gen. We simply don't need it because our Rafale + upgraded MKI combo would be just enough for us.

In order to destroy s400, rafale need to drop scalp missile at stand off range and let scalp to to follow terrain masking flight. Terrain following scalp may not be detected early by s400 radars, but it will definitely gonna detected at closs range. But its 50-50 situation then, it may get shot down or it may get a shot on s400. The same can be done by F15 EX too, but advantages of f15 is that once s400 eliminated it can go deep inside Tibet to target chinese installations siting comfortable zone.

 

[Hydra]

No, but their tech has reached a level where they can put something complex in such a small space.



It has a high NEZ due to its propulsion.

No. Russians do have AESA tech for long, yet they failed to miniature it in to a fighter size radar. So logically GaN in a fighter size radar is beyond their capability.

Propulsion is just One of the factor, usa believes it can achieve that without airbreathing propulsion. If Israeli advertisements are to be believed, Derby has achieved 80% performance parameters of Meteor with rocket propulsion. So AIM260 can or even exceed Meteor performances.

 

[randomradio]

How would a bigger sized radar be a downgrade for us? I don't think it's inferior to elta 2052 because the Israelis themselves haven't replaced there f15 radars with the elta 2052 same for the f16I's. Rafale's radar will be incomparable to the f15ex because it will never have the range of the f15 simply because of its size. Detection is something that can only told practically. I don't know how Israelis are a better source of radar for us, When most of the Israeli radar tech has been handed down by the Americans themselves. Well I guess tech wise I wouldn't say it would help us in developing now but as a platform it will be the right platform the join their supply chain.

The Israelis are not allowed to do that since America pays for the Israeli jets with their own money. It's basically free of cost to the Israelis, so how can you expect the Israelis to insist for the addition of their tech?

The Israelis are a better source because the Americans won't give us the tech, whereas the Israelis do. Also, the Americans and Israelis work together on something, and then over the course of many years they develop better and better versions which allows them to export the tech. When it comes to the 2052, the Israelis have made it better than what America operates today, so it's a technologically more advanced radar. Otoh, the US has kept their more advanced technologies for their own future programs, like the F-22 MLU, F-35 Block 5, PCA etc. The older tech is dumped for export.

Also, size isn't everything. The Rafale's radar is almost 4 times smaller than the MKI's radar, but has 2x the range performance.

How is a lower thrust engine superior to a higher thrust engine?

Just because something delivers higher thrust doesn't make it more advanced. The F-15's engine is a bigger engine so it can deliver more thrust, nothing more to it. What matters more is TWR, SFC, supercruise, maintainability etc. Even with all its thrust, the F-15 can't supercruise, but the Rafale can. The Rafale's engine doesn't require a test bench, while the F-15's engine needs one. The Rafale's engine doesn't require overhaul, while the F-15's engine needs it. And so on. Basically, the F-15's engine, even though it delivers more thrust, is half a generation behind the Rafale's engine.

 

[randomradio]

No. Russians do have AESA tech for long, yet they failed to miniature it in to a fighter size radar. So logically GaN in a fighter size radar is beyond their capability.

They have 2 AESA radars already flying. One is being inducted while the other is under state tests. PAK FA and Mig-35.

Propulsion is just One of the factor, usa believes it can achieve that without airbreathing propulsion. If Israeli advertisements are to be believed, Derby has achieved 80% performance parameters of Meteor with rocket propulsion. So AIM260 can or even exceed Meteor performances.

That 20% difference is like heaven and earth. I'd actually say the difference between Derby ER and AIM-260 will be very small.

 

[Hydra]

The Israelis are not allowed to do that since America pays for the Israeli jets with their own money. It's basically free of cost to the Israelis, so how can you expect the Israelis to insist for the addition of their tech?

The Israelis are a better source because the Americans won't give us the tech, whereas the Israelis do. Also, the Americans and Israelis work together on something, and then over the course of many years they develop better and better versions which allows them to export the tech. When it comes to the 2052, the Israelis have made it better than what America operates today, so it's a technologically more advanced radar. Otoh, the US has kept their more advanced technologies for their own future programs, like the F-22 MLU, F-35 Block 5, PCA etc. The older tech is dumped for export.

Also, size isn't everything. The Rafale's radar is almost 4 times smaller than the MKI's radar, but has 2x the range performance.



Just because something delivers higher thrust doesn't make it more advanced. The F-15's engine is a bigger engine so it can deliver more thrust, nothing more to it. What matters more is TWR, SFC, supercruise, maintainability etc. Even with all its thrust, the F-15 can't supercruise, but the Rafale can. The Rafale's engine doesn't require a test bench, while the F-15's engine needs one. The Rafale's engine doesn't require overhaul, while the F-15's engine needs it. And so on. Basically, the F-15's engine, even though it delivers more thrust, is half a generation behind the Rafale's engine.

None of these engines are superior i will say. I do agree with you that bigger engine generally produce bigger thrust. In modern era a good jet engine means it produce enough thrust & enough electrical power. If my memory is correct a single f15 engine produce 70 KW per engine.

Both have similar life cycle.
Regarding super cruise, did rafale able super cruise with weapons? Super cruise capability of Rafale & Grippen are mere a publicity stunts like their low rcs, not going show up these two peculiarities ( low rcs & super cruise ) in real war.
And with ge f414, grippen can.supercruise, f18 blk 3 cannot. Super crukse capability of gen 4 fighter is more of its aerodynamic & dry twr characteristics.

 

[Hydra]

They have 2 AESA radars already flying. One is being inducted while the other is under state tests. PAK FA and Mig-35.



That 20% difference is like heaven and earth. I'd actually say the difference between Derby ER and AIM-260 will be very small.

Yeah, the propoganda master even feilded an uncooked su57 in syria to show the world that gen5 su 57 is ready. I dont buy the claim that rusiian aesa is ready without a truck load of salt. They currently doesnt have any GaN fighter sized radar as you state in on.of your earlier reply.