"MMRCA competition was never a threat to Tejas or AMCA Do you see how you sound?
Let me reply to you pointwise.
1. IAF wanted more Mirage 2000 after Kargil, and these were sought to replace the aging fleet of MiG-21 which were close to their end of life time. Now as some of the jokers have been talking of weight class etc.. The original plane was to replace LIGHT FIGHTER AIRCRAFT with MEDIUM MRCA (French fanboys do term Mirage as Medium class dont they?)
So as some of the noted forumers here say that Light planes are light planes and cannot be replaced by heavy or Medium, so where was the IAFs intelligence in this? They were planning and going ahead with replacing a LCA(MiG-21) with an MCA (Mirage 2000) Tejas was being developed but due to Sanctions the development of Tejas was very slow as engine was not upto performance, Thus IAF did not want to go with Tejas (Imported airforce after all) So
2. Someone from bureaucracy thought that Mirage 2000-5 is much different than the original Mirage 2000 that would need a new RFI and cannot be taken as followon order. Thus started the MRCA.
3. French entered with Mirage 2000 which was already out of Production in France as France was producing Rafale, but still France thought to enter with Mirage 2000. So apparently the French were assured that Mirage 2000 would be selected no matter what.
4. When all the compeitors arrived. Mirage 2000 was the weakest of the lot and also it was NOT THE CHEAPEST. Thus if France had gone with Mirage 2000, then they would have lost it to others for performance and to MiG-35 in terms of performance and price. Thus later Dassault changed the Mirage 2000 entry with Rafale.
REMEMBER THIS COMPETITION WAS FOR REPLACING THE AGING MIG-21 OF IAF, and anyone who would call MiG-21 as Medium weight combat aircraft is a nut. So your point "MMRCA competition was never a threat to Tejas or AMCA " ,, fals flat.
Also every country in the world has limited resources and money. So India had to order say 140+ Tejas which will replace MiG-21, so where would the fund for 126 MRCA come from? Its not only matter of purchase, but also operations and maintenance.. So who pays for that? Mirage 2000 and Rafale are good planes but they dont bring something to the table which we dont have. Deep strike in Pakistan, we have Su-30 MKI which can do it, Deep strike in China, .. Rafale cannot go deep till guangzhou, and if it has to go till Guangzhou due to its short legs it would not be able to carry any warload that is significant, on other hand, India is developing missiles like Prahaar which can be air launched and has a range of 1000 kms and that surely puts Guangzhou or even Shanghai within the range of Su-30 MKI, but Rafale simply does not have the ability to carry this missile.
What FGFA brings is VLO by Design, Rafale is trying to depend on avionics for avoiding detection, but due to external loads and its design, no matter what, Rafale cannot be Stealthy, by design. Also when you have multiple radars scanning at different frenquencies it would be difficult for Rafale avionics to spoof them.
Already Rafale fanboys are exaggerating and trying to show that the RCS of Rafale is just bigger than F-22 hahahaha
So when you compare FGFA (Su-57) vs Rafale, Rafale is an old figher that was designed in last century, The engine is underpowered (and they spin this disadvantage as good for range haha) Further FGFA can carry bigger load of internal fuel and also ability to carry weapons internally and thus the RCS will be low and consistent, but this is not the case of Rafale, It is funny when French fanboys are trying to call FGFA expensive when we are not really aware of the price. The only thing that IAF talked about is that they were not happy about the performance as that time the Su-57 was tested with 4th Gen engine.
5th Gen planes offer better survivability, due to VLO which Rafale is unable to offer. Also if going to war, its always better to go with an unfair advantage which an FGFA will bring, Rafale is a 4th gen plane which can be taken down by other 4th gen planes, but this is not the case with 5th Gen plane..
The MMRCA competition was never a threat to Tejas or AMCA as it was the offsets that were going to help both programmes. It was FGFA that was going to eat all of that money.
