Proof of the pudding is in the eating.
There are definitely going to be more Rafale, if not, then Grippen. Adani has partnered with SAAB Grippen fyi.
And
@sob sir has said a few things in private, I am waiting for him to come and personally make things clearer for you.
In short HAL doesn't yet have the go ahead from GoI.
The pudding was not coked in not some far off foreign land.
All IAF test pilots who have tasted the pudding have nothing but praise for its taste!!!
By 2025 when france finishes rafale delivery HAL will be producing FGFA . SO no justification can ever be offered for further rafale orders.
The view of the present government with respect to rafale is "urgent buy to stop squadron depletion", not to fill up six IAF squadrons with 200 million dollar plus rafale.
Even this order has more to do with maintaining strategic relationship with France besides buying rafales.
No nation that can field close to 300 Su-30 MKIs need rafale in any purpose other than niche roles.
And that is not going to change in the near future.
You can wait till Modi makes his first Russian visit , to know the timetable for FGFA.
Already gripen E empty weight has crossed 8 tons. So there is every possibility that it will have a far lower thrust to weight ratio even compared to tejas mk1. It would be very hard for people who have criticized tejas for being "underpowered" to even contemplate gripen E buy!!!,
Even the "famed" Adani bhai can't bring IAF around to buying "such overweight single engine fighter"!!!The twin engine rafale weighs just 9 tons!!!
Gossips can be fried in cocktail circuits, with influential people close to ruling party and within the party pushing for gripen E.but it wont get implemented on ground
reason is gripen E has much more deeper eng redesign than simple add 0.5 meter fuselage length, that is going to be done for tejas mk2 .
gripen E was made to compete with rafale and typhoon in weapon weight and range category with much bigger drag inducing fairings for relocated wheels fairings and need to carry more fuel to go longer.
But the brief given by IAF for tejas mk2 is different- More agility with , higher thrust to weight ratio, in a single engine fighter , not high weapon carriage and longer range.And filling up the mig replacement option with economical cost, at a third of grpen E cost , if we take lifecycle and upgradation cost into account.
IAF has rafales and su-30 MKIs for the roles envisaged by gripen E. .
IAF wants cost effective high Thrust to weight ratio fighter that can dominate the border area. And tejas will fill it easily.
And most of the brochure figures quoted for rafale and gripen for range and weapon carriage are just PR.
Range of an fighter is simply proportional to the spec called fuel fraction(weight of fuel/empty weight of fighter)
All other claims like my fighter will fly 4000 Km at an optimum fixed hihg altitude with puny weapon load ,have no operational validity when they are expected to carry optimum weapon load in punishing high temp low altitude terrain napping low level penetration mode.
I have posted the same info many times in tejas thread, whenever people throw ubber specs of MNC fighters.
And it is a fact that can never be rebutted.
