India buys the Rafale

[Almansur]

https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2012/01/31/dassault-parvient-enfin-a-exporter-ses-rafale_1636901_3234.html#ens_id=1636502

First export ever. The Typhoon was the favourite for the contract. Weird.

[nsplayr]

Une page dans l'anglais, s'il vous plaît ?

[Almansur]

Une page dans l'anglais, s'il vous plaît ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-16809532

[HiFlyer]

Actually, that's not quite true. What the Indians announced was that the Rafale was the low bidder, but they haven't actually bought any. They will now enter into negotiantions and will probably buy them down the road, but its always possible that the negotiations break down over other issues and allow the Typhoon back into the fray. Those nasty political implications always screw up a clean deal.

Edited January 31, 2012 by HiFlyer

[brickhistory]

For you stickmonkey types, does adding a white flag deploy button near chaff/flares really screw up the ergonomics of the throttles?

C'mon, putting a stereotype for the French was practically mandantory here...

[hobbitcid]

Makes sense - India has been buying its weapons systems from Russia (Mig 21, 27, 29, SU30, IL76, TU142, IL38, MIL an Kamov helos), USA (C-130J, C-17, P-8, 737 VIP) and France (Mirage 2000, Sepecat Jaguar [brit also]). The Indians apparantly passed on Russian and US fighters (F/A-18E/F) in order to be less dependent on a specific nation. By purchasing Rafael, they can do this and already have an MOU/MOA in place for the Mirage 2000. Typhoon, like the Jaguar and the Tornado are managed by an international consortium (GBR, DEU, ESP, ITA) making MOUs and MOAs all the more difficult. Finally, the French have been flogging Rafael to anyone and everyone they can to no avail. I'm guessing the offset offered in this deal is more than 100% - meaning India will get back more than it spends in other trade and benefits.

The big question I now have is will the Indian Navy follow suit and give up their Mig 29Ks for the Naval Rafael? It might be possible but would require refit of their new carriers (no catapults). Interesting...

[Guest]

They need something that can deliver a nuke.

[Clayton Bigsby]

Makes sense - India has been buying its weapons systems from Russia (Mig 21, 27, 29, SU30, IL76, TU142, IL38, MIL an Kamov helos), USA (C-130J, C-17, P-8, 737 VIP) and France (Mirage 2000, Sepecat Jaguar [brit also]). The Indians apparantly passed on Russian and US fighters (F/A-18E/F) in order to be less dependent on a specific nation. By purchasing Rafael, they can do this and already have an MOU/MOA in place for the Mirage 2000. Typhoon, like the Jaguar and the Tornado are managed by an international consortium (GBR, DEU, ESP, ITA) making MOUs and MOAs all the more difficult. Finally, the French have been flogging Rafael to anyone and everyone they can to no avail. I'm guessing the offset offered in this deal is more than 100% - meaning India will get back more than it spends in other trade and benefits.

The big question I now have is will the Indian Navy follow suit and give up their Mig 29Ks for the Naval Rafael? It might be possible but would require refit of their new carriers (no catapults). Interesting...

Rafael is an Israeli defense contractor; Rafale is the name of the aircraft in question.

Does it have the thrust to do the ski-jump, non-catapult takeoff? Eurofighter was claiming their aircraft did, so a naval version of the EF-2000 wouldn't need a catapult launch bar and strengthened nose gear.

And French AF Rafales are taking the aerial nuke mission from the AdA's Mirage 2000Ns.

Edited February 1, 2012 by Clayton Bigsby