MMRCA 2.0 - Updates and Discussions

What is your favorite for MMRCA 2.0 ?

  • F-35 Blk 4

    Votes: 36 14.6%
  • Rafale F4

    Votes: 192 78.0%
  • Eurofighter Typhoon T3

    Votes: 4 1.6%
  • Gripen E/F

    Votes: 6 2.4%
  • F-16 B70

    Votes: 1 0.4%
  • F-18 SH

    Votes: 10 4.1%
  • F-15EX

    Votes: 9 3.7%
  • Mig-35

    Votes: 1 0.4%

  • Total voters
    246
@Parthu
It is more likely that the characteristics of the strongest incident signal would be selected by the system processor for destructive interference.
This is exactly what I meant(though in Rafale's case, replace most doable(read: mono-pulse) with the strongest). CSIR NAL has been pursuing the development of 'Destructive Interference' for quite some time and what's interesting is that now after studying how it works in Rafale, all our new-gen ECM suits/pods will have it too. But it still isn't a panacea and ONLY 'part of deception' not passive stealth substitute by any means. Otherwise when MKI gets those twin GaN HBJ pods(which are specifically tuned to hide its RCS), it'll become stealth too😂
 
If F4 standards can't be upgraded to F5 standards what're the French AF going to do with the nearly 200 Rafales in their inventory or is there a separate program for their upgradation & if so does it involve change of the TFs ?
Some elements like main-radar RBE2 XG etc. could definitely be put but forget about other airframe changes as it'll be too costly.
Besides in what numbers are the French AF planning to acquire the F5 standard in ? If there's going to be a substantial change in the air frame including the TFs do the numbers of F5 standard Rafales to be procured justify the costs ?
As per the French, F5 will be designed to counter stealth fighters like Su-57/J-20 etc. So how many they want to procure is anybody's guess. Maybe they think that F5 will better compete with F-35 in the export market. So less numbers for domestic usage and more for export. Let's see.......
 
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In #5636 RST advises against paying heed to the I D R W article & in the very next post he goes on to endorse what the article is claiming . Such are the mysteries of 8 pm behaviour.

Last night it was about IAF getting BRD to assemble AMCA , tonight is about putting down that behaviour to being gaslit by civilians. This is a new low even by the now low standards RST is operating by .Tsk Tsk , how the mighty have fallen ?

Btw - I don't think anyone here's come across news of the the IAF threatening to assemble the AMCA at BRDs.The only instance we had of the IAF threatening to do so was when ACM Browne got into a nasty & public spat with HAL over their proposal to develop the HTT-40 where the good ACM was adamant of importing the full complement of trainers from Pilatus. We know how well that one went.

We also know of RST's spirited defence of it on the thread here. Further we also know how that one ended . Just to jog 8 pm memory .

IMG_20250101_223309.jpg

Post in thread 'Trainer Aircraft of IAF - PC-7, HTT-40, HJT-36, BAE Hawk' Trainer Aircraft of IAF - PC-7, HTT-40, HJT-36, BAE Hawk


🤣

The Akashteer system of the IA being layered with the IACCS of the IAF & the Trigun system of the IN is much more than linking all sensors - military & civilian into a pan India grid .

Apart from its obvious utilities for our BMD there's talk now of us procuring the Voronezh OTHR for ~ 4 billion USD from Russia & our own BMD Phase 2 or 3 (?) consisting of developing counters for HGV & HCM .

If the news of our procurement from Moscow of this OTHR radar is true , why didn't we opt for Russian anti stealth radar systems like Rezonans-NE & Nebo M ? Quite obviously it means we already have these systems or it's an advanced stage of development.

I've tried looking online for more detailed information on it but except for PIB style anodyne articles there really isn't much there . I've asked @vstol Jockey for his inputs for he first brought it up here assuming it isn't top secret.

It's well known that for biological & chemical weapons nations mfg them have first developed an antidote for it. IMO , the same is true of anti stealth capabilities. In fact I'd go so far as to say , these capabilities are an even more closely guarded secret. So secret that we don't have much on it except for generic articles online.

I recall reading ab article way back in 2014 where the then Israeli Air Force chief declared that stealth would have a counter by the mid 20s. Well here we are & I'm betting no more than half a dozen countries have that capability. I'm just hoping we're in that half a dozen.
 
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If F4 standards can't be upgraded to F5 standards what're the French AF going to do with the nearly 200 Rafales in their inventory or is there a separate program for their upgradation & if so does it involve change of the TFs ?

Besides in what numbers are the French AF planning to acquire the F5 standard in ? If there's going to be a substantial change in the air frame including the TFs do the numbers of F5 standard Rafales to be procured justify the costs ?

Perhaps you can enlighten us . @Picdelamirand-oil
I said in a post here that the wingspan of the aircraft was going to change, but that was a mistake because in French you can use envergure to describe the wings of an aircraft but also as a synonym for ‘large scale’ and our minister's sentence was ambiguous.
The modifications envisaged for the F5 are mainly of three types: modifications to the wiring, modifications to the cooling system and new openings with materials that allow Radar waves to pass through to fit new antennae. From my point of view, the new T-Rex engine will be interchangeable with the current M88.


Now, even if the F5 standard is not completely defined, the supplementary definitions have long been related to software only: the development of equipment can only be launched once the interface specifications have been defined, and they have already been defined for the old F4. 2 and a DGA had said that all exported Rafales would be capable of upgrading to F4.2. This means that there are only 152 French aircraft that will not be able to be upgraded. And as we have sold 24 second-hand, that makes 128 old Rafales and 97 Rafales that will be produced directly in F5 or that can be upgraded.
 
I said in a post here that the wingspan of the aircraft was going to change, but that was a mistake because in French you can use envergure to describe the wings of an aircraft but also as a synonym for ‘large scale’ and our minister's sentence was ambiguous.
The modifications envisaged for the F5 are mainly of three types: modifications to the wiring, modifications to the cooling system and new openings with materials that allow Radar waves to pass through to fit new antennae. From my point of view, the new T-Rex engine will be interchangeable with the current M88.


Now, even if the F5 standard is not completely defined, the supplementary definitions have long been related to software only: the development of equipment can only be launched once the interface specifications have been defined, and they have already been defined for the old F4. 2 and a DGA had said that all exported Rafales would be capable of upgrading to F4.2. This means that there are only 152 French aircraft that will not be able to be upgraded. And as we have sold 24 second-hand, that makes 128 old Rafales and 97 Rafales that will be produced directly in F5 or that can be upgraded.
Thanks for the information. What about the Rafales that can't be upgraded to F5 standards ? Do they have a different upgradation program ?
 
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Thanks for the information. What about the Rafales that can't be upgraded to F5 standards ? Do they have a different upgradation program ?
They can be upgraded but it cost a lot : roughtly the price to upgrade F1 => F2 (€ 30 Million / Plane). If not they will not have the multi-function antenna around the aircraft but they could have a GaN main antenna for exemple and new software. So we will have F4.1.....F4.3, F4.4, F4.5 etc.
 
But F5 will be a different aircraft all together I think,different engine . It won't be ready even at 2030 I fear. @@picdelamirand-oil any inputs on it?

I prefer 36+54 + mmrca over 36+36+mmrca.

Yeah. It's expected in 2030.

 
Oh great. So we're getting a Rafale line for free then? Wow, stupid Dassault!

This was the original plan, until Anil Ambani choked.

And now, instead of 2022, it's 2025.
With this, by early 2025, DRAL plans to finally deliver its first Falcon 2000 aircraft, said sources aware of the development.
DRAL will have capacity to make as many as 22 Falcon 2000 jets in a year.


The same line will assemble IN's Rafales.

Stupid Dassault will set up India's first proper business jet line. This will kick the doors open for other companies to do the same. I think Mahindra is working with someone too. Kinda like foreign car companies doing the sam stupid thing.

F3 baseline existed. We added ISEs on top of that - but we paid for it all out of pocket.

Right now only F4 baseline exists. F5 baseline will come by 2030.

Which means even if you sign a deal for a notional F5 configuration today, you'll need to wait till post-2030 for the R&D program to complete, because it just started. Deliveries will take place a few years thereafter.

F5 delivery to French forces is slated for 2030. I'm expecting IAF to get by 2033, along with the drone, if we go for it.

IAF isn't gonna be looking at anything until & unless there's an AoN.

It's been 8 years since the first 36 were bought and still there's nothing.

Wait for a few months.

You just reposted the same link I posted. You feeling all right?

Wasn't a post, just failed to edit.

Anyway, F4 comes with new digital antenna upgrades. A lot of our ISE stuff is non-French.

All of them. Cuz that's an upper limit, not lower.

They raised the limit for a reason.

What did you expect them to say?

Nothing. They are not supposed to say anything, just quietly go about their business.

Lol, MKI isn't getting a new engine, neither a longer airframe nor increased payload or internal fuel capacity.

You're comparing apples with oranges.

Exactly, like Mk1A, so you are comparing an upgrade with a modernization. Modernization enils changes to the airframe that require more extensive flight testing.

You are arguing for the sake of it. If it was a different airframe, they would have called it something else entirely, not LCA.

Cuz we were desperate. MiGs were falling out of the sky, Tejas wasn't ready and we couldn't waste the flight hours on the precious few M2Ks we have.

MKI had to do it. But it was never meant to.

Funny how you said MKIs did not replace Mig-21s, when they did.

30% of 126 is 38. 30% of 189 would be 57.

Great. So I was wrong. We don't need to buy 2 more Rafale squadrons, we just need 1 more.

Rest of the MRFA requirement can be met by additional Tejas Mk2.

Lack of analysis there. It's not number of jets, it's about capabilities.

We need 200 jets that can do 10 things. But due to cost, we are willing to accept 100 jets that can do 7 out of those 10 things and the other 3 will be done by the remaining 100. We would prefer all 200 do all 10 things, but we are fine with 100 + 100. That's the logic here.

So we need 100% of the 126 to do those last 3 things + a few of the first 7, while the smaller jet dedicates itself to do all the first 7 things.

Take a typical 1000-TRM FCR. The main beam can consist of up to 600 or more TRMs while still leaving enough to do other jobs like TWS.

Now tell me how the 15 TRMs on your EW emitter are going to deal with this 600 TRM main beam that's trying to scan you.







In short, a 600-TRM beam can be in many more places of the 8-12ghz (X band) range at the same time than what a 15-TRM EW emitter can. If you cannot modulate your output as much as the threat radar can, you cannot send him back the signal you want. You can only send back a small portion of it.

If a 1000-TRM threat radar were to be simultaneously tracking, say, 50 targets with ~20 TRMs dedicated to each track, in that hypothetical scenario it may be possible for a Rafale to sufficiently fool an AESA and slip by. Otherwise you ain't escaping an AESA with ACT, sorry.

And this is all when talking about a Rafale facing a single threat radar at a given time, which is not at all a realistic scenario.

You don't understand your own question, 'cause it doesn't make sense.

Anyway, SPECTRA has correlators, and there are tens of thousands of them. Take GPS, only 4 satellites are required for positioning, but the number of signals sent to just one satellite at a single time is tens of thousands. Imagine all those people on the ground using GPS.

Similarly, cell towers send out thousands of signals when thousands of phones are working in tandem. And the cell tower has just small antenna.

Signal management is quite easy.

Also, radar doesn't work the way you think it does. It works on the principle of superposition. So that means to get a meaningful signal, you need a lot of TRMs transmitting the same signal at the same power in the same direction. These signals then constructively interfere with each other and you create a main beam. This main beam is what you need to detect targets.
So if you use 500 TRMs to generate 500 different signals, then all these signals will just fizzle out less than 100 m away from the aircraft, 'cause each of those signals are barely 10 W. So the more TRMs you use to generate the main beam, the more range you get.

That means a radar will only create 1 or 2 or even 3 beams at best. But more beams means a very significant drop in range. But you could have 1 beam searching the air, the other beam searching the ground, and that's how you get swing role capability.

So if SPECTRA has to work against this type of radar, it only has to deal with 1 beam, the one searching the air, 'cause that's the threat to the Rafale. It can ignore the other beam, it's for others to deal with.

MKI can create only 1 beam at a time with 1 transmitter. RBE2 PESA and Irbis E can create 2 beams with 2 transmitters. AESA can create many more via a process called radar choreography, where it can divide TRMs into sections, even lines. It does this to improve identification and accuracy at the cost of range.

And naturally, SPECTRA has enough resources to deal with many radars. A single ground-based radar can create multiple large main beams. For example, the S-400's FCR can create 4 large beams. An AESA radar can create even more than that. And Rafale's equipped to defeat multiple such radars.

You should try sending this link to Dassault's email address and tell them they're wasting their time on stealthy things like nEUROn.

They would agree with me though.

Even the French don't openly talk about this that much, so not like anyone would care.

How else do I know?

FFS, they're talking about the DASS suite's ECM/ESM functionality. This is what Typhoon means by Digital Stealth:


ECM is not stealth. The French call it "virtual stealth." Do you see anybody actually advertising stealth?

Stealth and ECM are totally different concepts. There's nothing stealthy about ECM.

You wanna tell the Italian, German & Brit air forces that they're wasting their money buying F-35s when their home-grown Typhoon can beat it at stealth?

Typhoon isn't good enough. I'll explain that in Rajput's reply.

You still don't get it. I'm asking why isn't SCAF itself a modernized Rafale?

As I said, there's politics involved. Picdel is confident the program will die after a TD is created. Like it happened with the Typhoon.

Coming from an MKI? Sure, Rafale would seem stealthy as heck.

Wait till they see what a F-22 or F-35 looks like without the Luneberg lens.

They have a way better idea than you think. They have seen far more stealthy systems than the F-22 and F-35. That's why we have 3 stealth programs of our own.

By definition, they are. By design it must not be so that money goes out of the country in order to procure critical equipment.

But there are certain realities to be considered, our domestic R&D base has not developed to the level where it can substitute all foreign bought equipment. So we just gotta be careful, and only buy things we really cannot develop ourselves.

Spending billions to indigenize a French AESA when there's an indigenous one ready is exactly the kind of thing to avoid. MRFA, as it exists today, is filled with such things.

ToT keeps money in the country. And pays for it far more than you can imagine.

It's their job to be answerable to the taxpayers, just like all other public servants. If they think they are above that, then there's a need of an attitude adjustment. Such corrective measures do come along once in a while.

And end of the day, IAF has to realize that it's not fighting its own war - it's expected to function as part of a larger integrated defence establishment. So when a different service comes up with a way to destroy an enemy bunker protected by air defences that can destroy a fighter but can't stop a Mach 3 steep-diving BrahMos, IAF should listen.

And they should readjust their procurement accordingly. They can't be wearing horse blinders. They need to be situationally aware.

LOL!!!

You don't even know what ACT is. Here, have another read:

Their technique is old, from the 80s. Rafale uses significantly more modern hardware. The stealth mode was introduced 40 years later, ie, 2020.
 
@Parthu

This is exactly what I meant(though in Rafale's case, replace most doable(read: mono-pulse) with the strongest). CSIR NAL has been pursuing the development of 'Destructive Interference' for quite some time and what's interesting is that now after studying how it works in Rafale, all our new-gen ECM suits/pods will have it too. But it still isn't a panacea and ONLY 'part of deception' not passive stealth substitute by any means. Otherwise when MKI gets those twin GaN HBJ pods(which are specifically tuned to hide its RCS), it'll become stealth too😂

It's about the position of the antennas. For ACT to work, the transmitting antennas must be positioned around an aircraft's hotspots, and the aircraft also must have some levels of shaping, so that its RCS is significantly lower than 1m2 from the aspect you want ACT to work.

So the Rafale's hotspots are centered around wherever you can locate transmitter antennas. And you know where they are. The Rafale pushes all the radar signals incident on it towards these hotspots via shaping. And then it transmits the AC signals from these hotspots.

Without ACT, the Rafale would look like 2 equidistant dots on a calm sea from the front. And ACT simply hides those dots. For example, you have also seen Rafale's IR signature, it's just a dot.

But the MKI has not been treated for low RCS, it's far more than 1m2. So it has far too many hotspots to count. A radar would see the MKI as a full-fledged aircraft. Like an MKI-shaped tiled cloud. ACT can theoretically be done, but the amount of antennas and processing required would bankrupt the IAF. If you look at the MKI's IR signature, it looks like a ball of fire. Furthermore, the position of the pods is not at the aircraft's hotspots.

Similarly, both Typhoon and Gripen carry wingtip pods. Here, I do not know if the biggest hotspots are the wingtips or not. While it cannot achieve Rafale's level of stealth, but at least both jets have very low frontal RCS and the pods can serve to maintain a low RCS at least, perhaps below 1m2. Of course, we do not know if more internal antennas will be added or not at a later date. SH is capable of being equipped with ACT though, it's similar to the Rafale and the B3 may have very similar RCS.
 
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So my prediction of MRFA being contested between Rafale F5 vs F-35 Block 4 has started to take shape;)
Man, I like your optimism and more often than not agree with what you say, but the US side isn't offering us F-35 (Block 4 or whatever) unless the US-India bilateral relations experience a tectonic shift for the better, and not worse, under Trump 2.0 and Modi 3.0. F5 iteration of Rafale won't start any development until 2027-28 and won't enter service until 2031-32, so if in a best case scenario AoN for MRFA gets released next year, it may well be too early for F5 to participate and showcase the futuristic, non-indigenous tech IAF is on the lookout for.

Plus, even if we consider a hypothetical purchase of F-35A (2-3 sqns worth, stopgap), the operating cost is somewhere around $33,000 per flight hour so unless the GoI increases the budget massively, such an expensive but incomplete flying machine of war is going to ruin our OpEx.
 
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*yawn* at Ignorants.

36+114 is part of my wishlist. I'm not sitting around thinking it's confirmed. Nor am I sitting around praying only 36 are bought, like the PAF is.

That PC-7 argument is accurate. Pilatus is dead. The civilians killed it using nonsensical claims with no proof. And instead of buying 38 more allowing for greater pilot training and then eventually selling it to make way for more HTT-40, we have neither today. The idea was the someone else would buy the trainer for their own purpose as the HTT-40 approaches end of production so the IAF has just 1 basic trainer. Buying 38 more would have been inducted before 2020. And it would take us between 2030-35 to replace the remaining 75+38 PC-7 with more HTT-40s. One aircraft to rule them all. Man, how common sense escapes even apparently sensible people sometimes.

PC-7 has a 30-year life. We would have been able to operate it until MLU and sold it.

But now we have this ridiculous setup of 2 basic trainers. And apparently, I am the one without the engineering experience skills.

It's going to be very difficult to get batches of students into intermediate training after experiencing 2 different aircraft. They may even have to be split into 2 classes for decades. Only problem is Ignorants does not understand such things.

Thankfully we don't have enough fighter jets. Or we wouldn't have had the pilots necessary. :ROFLMAO:
 
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Sometimes I wonder whether RST behaves like a clod coz of the 8 pm effect or there's something inherently wrong in his thought process or whether it's a case of both . Like this 👇


Like that child in the video , the first problem is misidentification followed by incessant whining about a wish list masquerading as a necessity , repeatedly. Now while this may be tolerable coming as it does from a child , what can one say to a grown up unless that grown up is a manchild like RST here ?

Viewers could be forgiven for believing this is a video right out of RST's childhood. No it isn't , I assure you though it could well be the case . Perhaps if the rod wasn't spared , we would be spared bytes of bilge.

Back to topic , if the requirement of the tender itself is 114 nos & the initial 36 nos procured thru a G2G contract with no less than the ex CDS the late Gen Rawat publicly stating the differences he had in the mode of procurement with Vayu Bhavan , which both the MoD & CDS agreed should be done in tranches but was opposed by the then ACM V.R.Choudhary who wanted all the FA thru the tender route resulting in the entire thing being put on the back burner , only to be resurrected now after the departure of ACM Choudhary & the current ACM Singh giving a grim assessment in his very first PC to the GoI responding by setting up a committee to look into the state of affairs within the IAF w.r.t war preparedness , where the old mode of procurement thru tranches is back doing the rounds in print , assuming it to be the case & the procurement goes thru , who in his right mind thinks we'd be going in for another 114 nos thru the tender route in 2030 ( which'd in theory bring the requirement close to 186 nos ) that too after the Chinese have flown not 1 but 2 FAs which are purportedly 6th Gen , another one claimed to be a 7th Gen with near space flying capabilities & yet another 6th Gen stealth bomber , analogous to the B-21 respectively , due to make a public appearance shortly all of which would perhaps go into mass production in the mid 30s & we'd be inducting 4.5+ or 4.5++ or 4.5++++ F5 standard Rafales around the same time whereas we should be launching our studies on the next gen FA or Bomber by next year latest when the Mk-2 makes first flight ?
 
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As far as the Pilatus vs HTT-40 argument goes I'd urge those interested with plenty of time to spare & who're easily entertained to trace the link I've enclosed back to the post on the thread which happens to be among the last posts of argument which spanned around 20 pages involved multiple members vs RST who was resident or hopeless optimist then ( I forget ) & around 6-12 months of furious to & fro like now on whether the HTT-40 will replace the final tranche of Pilatus's to be imported.

That was it - the gist of the entire argument not whether it was the right thing to do or the wisdom of the decision or the time it would take or the costs or the fact that we'd have 2 different trainers doing the same job and { Egypt has 2 or 3(?) even as we speak }.

All-this post facto rationalisation RST is bringing up here was touched upon around the time it became clear Pilatus will be booted out come what may & later. You can see as much in RST's complete volte face ( & equally tepid response) in the post quoted there much to the mirth of everybody present then .

Some thing's never change . For everything else there's MasterCard.
 
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The modifications envisaged for the F5 are mainly of three types: modifications to the wiring, modifications to the cooling system and new openings with materials that allow Radar waves to pass through to fit new antennae. From my point of view, the new T-Rex engine will be interchangeable with the current M88.


Now, even if the F5 standard is not completely defined, the supplementary definitions have long been related to software only: the development of equipment can only be launched once the interface specifications have been defined, and they have already been defined for the old F4. 2 and a DGA had said that all exported Rafales would be capable of upgrading to F4.2. This means that there are only 152 French aircraft that will not be able to be upgraded. And as we have sold 24 second-hand, that makes 128 old Rafales and 97 Rafales that will be produced directly in F5 or that can be upgraded.
So for the F5, the version of M88 that'll fit on Rafale will be similar to the F-414-EPE from GE, and with increased electrical output to power more advanced sensors, if I'm reading it correctly?
 
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Back to topic , if the requirement of the tender itself is 114 nos & the initial 36 nos procured thru a G2G contract with no less than the ex CDS the late Gen Rawat publicly stating the differences he had in the mode of procurement with Vayu Bhavan , which both the MoD & CDS agreed should be done in tranches but was opposed by the then ACM V.R.Choudhary who wanted all the FA thru the tender route resulting in the entire thing being put on the back burner , only to be resurrected now after the departure of ACM Choudhary & the current ACM Singh giving a grim assessment

Already having sleepless night after that 6th Gen revelations by China, as if they didn't know it earlier. Suddenly you turn from normal procurement policy why? Surely public pressure.


In Short​

  • Main focus on tech integration like AI, robotics
  • Streamlining defence acquisition and inter-services cooperation was another key area of focus
  • Boosting defence exports and public-private partnerships
The Defence Ministry has declared 2025 as the ‘Year of Reforms,’ setting the stage for a new era of transformation within the Indian Armed Forces, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced on Tuesday after chairing a meeting with top officials on New Year's Eve.
 
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It's about the position of the antennas. For ACT to work, the transmitting antennas must be positioned around an aircraft's hotspots, and the aircraft also must have some levels of shaping, so that its RCS is significantly lower than 1m2 from the aspect you want ACT to work.

So the Rafale's hotspots are centered around wherever you can locate transmitter antennas. And you know where they are. The Rafale pushes all the radar signals incident on it towards these hotspots via shaping. And then it transmits the AC signals from these hotspots.

Without ACT, the Rafale would look like 2 equidistant dots on a calm sea from the front. And ACT simply hides those dots. For example, you have also seen Rafale's IR signature, it's just a dot.

But the MKI has not been treated for low RCS, it's far more than 1m2. So it has far too many hotspots to count. A radar would see the MKI as a full-fledged aircraft. Like an MKI-shaped tiled cloud. ACT can theoretically be done, but the amount of antennas and processing required would bankrupt the IAF. If you look at the MKI's IR signature, it looks like a ball of fire. Furthermore, the position of the pods is not at the aircraft's hotspots.

Similarly, both Typhoon and Gripen carry wingtip pods. Here, I do not know if the biggest hotspots are the wingtips or not. While it cannot achieve Rafale's level of stealth, but at least both jets have very low frontal RCS and the pods can serve to maintain a low RCS at least, perhaps below 1m2. Of course, we do not know if more internal antennas will be added or not at a later date. SH is capable of being equipped with ACT though, it's similar to the Rafale and the B3 may have very similar RCS.
It's not that Rafale doesn't have ACT but rather it's not that effective against modern IADS. If ACT gives Rafales same RCS as VLO birds then why does it use low and fast penetration against modern IADS? Why not fly high and fast relying on ACT to hide itself and conserve fuel in the process?(@Parthu) The answer is simple: Even the French airforce doesn't believe in ACT that much. It's part of the game not full game in itself.

PS: DRDO/IAF know about MKI's RCS hotspots all too well. So the new-gen GaN ASPJ pods might be tuned to cancel the spikes there. Wing-tip mount actually covers more angles and area than canard-root mount like Rafale, that's why Gripen-E & Typhoon has got it there.


Anyways, Rafale F5 will have conformal antennas across its frame, so might achieve better ACT results than current ones, IMO.
 
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Man, I like your optimism and more often than not agree with what you say, but the US side isn't offering us F-35 (Block 4 or whatever) unless the US-India bilateral relations experience a tectonic shift for the better, and not worse, under Trump 2.0 and Modi 3.0. F5 iteration of Rafale won't start any development until 2027-28 and won't enter service until 2031-32, so if in a best case scenario AoN for MRFA gets released next year, it may well be too early for F5 to participate and showcase the futuristic, non-indigenous tech IAF is on the lookout for.

Plus, even if we consider a hypothetical purchase of F-35A (2-3 sqns worth, stopgap), the operating cost is somewhere around $33,000 per flight hour so unless the GoI increases the budget massively, such an expensive but incomplete flying machine of war is going to ruin our OpEx.
The Americans are again sending F-35A to Aero India 2025. Why, ask yourself?

PS: If you follow my posts here then you'll see that most of my predictions/optimism has proven correct. Maybe there is a method behind my madness or maybe I'm the Oracle himself(just kidding🤣).
 
AMCA with 'Active Stealth' would be far more effective than Rafale F5 'cause it'll already have very less spikes due to its stealthy airframe. Rafale won't be stealth as along as it'll carry its weapons outside. It's that simple.

However, Rafale's approach of low and fast penetration(especially at nights) along with its novel EW makes it extremely deadly for our enemies. We should definitely procure more.
We need far more aircrafts. Since I've come to this forum, I've been saying it and I will continue to say it. We need way more rafales and flankers. We need a Jaguar replacement (that is not fulfilled by rafales). We will have to procure the f-35 or su-57. People will dismiss me here but the reality will soon set in. We can't match Chinese industrial capacity in any shape or form. We will have buy a lot of western, russian jets on top of building our own jets. It's our need. We will have to reverse engineer russian gear too. With the current state we aren't ready to face the PLA when they complete their modernisation by 2035. They
Abandon Mk1 development after procuring all those 83 units

Give full focus on Tejas Mk2 with development of dedicated smart engine for 4.5 and 5+ gen aircraft, put this project under PMO along with AMCA Mark 2.

No point in persuading Mark 1 AMCA. In two years the AI logic and new computational models will change the whole concept.

Buy 30 Rafales more and invest on anti stealth radar system heavily and UCAV Ghataks, prepare Ghatak for AMCA mark1 role.

MoD and IAF have already botched a lot of things. Put these projects under PMO.
No we need the mk1's and plenty of them. We need atleast 300-400 mk1's on top of 200-300 mk2's. The mk1's will be the backbone of the IAF and are capable fighters.
 
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I say not a chance we're getting the F-35 . Firstly it hasn't & won't be offered
We can get the f-35 provided we either buy the f-16's or we sell our sovereignty. The f-35 is a very tricky purchase which will give Americans a lot of access to our operating methods.
 
We can get the f-35 provided we either buy the f-16's or we sell our sovereignty. The f-35 is a very tricky purchase which will give Americans a lot of access to our operating methods.
We'll ONLY buy F-35(if we ever do) on our terms. Fighters are too important for us to succumb under US pressure. Otherwise Rafale along with Su-57M are good enough for us.