Rafael is a good plane and they should buy them when the production line is still open but France is moving onto better and I hope they secure the spares and upgrades into the contract. India should work with Russia on Mig35 to navalize till Tejas can be navalized satisfactorily. We should not proliferate too many imports. Just stick with French and Russian in fighters.
Probably a bit too heavy and US sanctions are a big threat anytime but yes its a good plane however adding one more OEM will make maintenance that much expensive
F-18 doesnt have anything above Rafale except sm front cost but cost of ownership of a US weapon system is similar to any Euro jet.
This is about jets for navy. MKI is not an option. Mig 29k/Rafale/F18/Tejas (not available yet).....F-18 is too heavy for carrier Vikramaditya and possibly vikrant. Mig29k would be the ideal option from cost pov especially if they can get mig 35 tech into it....Rafales are good but damn too expensive.
Rafale is ideal choice for Navy buy 30 and be done with it rest put money on MKI upg and Tejas production.
That's an option if they have money but migs are more likely and rather sufficient or they wait for Tejas. Vikrant is atleast 3 to 4 years away.
pretty sure if they have money for 108+57 F-18 they can buy 30 odd Rafale M for Navy and use rest of money to upg MKI and Tejas production... or who knows buy another sqd of Rafale for IAF
Not sure I follow....what do you mean upg MKI? If you mean SU-30 MKI then they are too heavy for a carrier....F-18 also is too heavy most likely without a catapult or emals. That leaves Mig29k/Rafale/Tejas as potential
What cant u understand?
Never heard that kinda calculaion....IAF ruled out US jets and went for Rafales, Naval jets come from navy budget and has nothing to do with mki upgrade.
all budget comes from MOF.
Nice try but does not work like that....negotiations might happen with OEM like that for leverage and may work on Tejas development like that but thats not how it works in general.
dont know why this doesnt work... wasting billions on planes like F-18/16 is stupid buy few more Rafale for Navy lets say 25-30 enough to take care of Vikrant operations and buy 18 more for IAF rest invest in Tejas and MKI upgrade.
No one is buying F-18s yet, just a discussion on whats possible for IN carriers. They are too heavy for our carriers.
You keep saying that they are too heavy for our Carriers, as per who?
We do not have catapult and IN complained even navalized Tejas prototype on vikramaditya. F-18 weight is too heavy for a skijump in my opinion
Sorry buddy, all that doesn't matter. IN is not going to buy anything without trials and so both Rafale and Block 3 SH will have to undergo extensive trials from INS Vikky and based on the performance the winner will be chosen. Block 3 SH has a higher chance of winning due to folding wings, better cockpit, better AESA, a lot more weapons come integrated for the Naval and Maritime role. Rafale could also win due to existing IAF order. Eitherway, both are great in different ways. Only trials will tell who performs better.
We're definitely going to buy a foreign MMRCA for the Navy though?
