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the Gripen is half the price for capability that by the admission of your own ACM closely matches Rafale and Typhoon - No. The Gripen from what I have read costs very close to the Rafale, while being a smaller, single-engine jet. It would be an excellent LCA but we already have that aircraft.

I would love to see the Eurofighter in IAF colours, it’s supposedly the most manoeuvrable, exciting plane to fly after the F-22. However, I think the Rafale has better A2G capabilities (which fits the requirement from MMRCA), we can add Naval Rafales if necessary, it would have some...

The F-16 Block-60 would cost $60m, just for the aircraft, befort you add in cost for infrastructure, training, support. The F-35 would cost much more than Europfighter/Rafale, be available much later when we would start receiving the PAK-FA anyway. Its of no use to India.

Any good western product would cost 2x-3x as much as a cheap Chinese one, and 1.5x as much as Russian, and with good reason. For instance the new GE-414INS engines on the LCA would offer above 100KN of thrust, and much superior technology, compared to the Russian RD-93 and Chinese WS-13 engines...

The Su-30MKI is probably the most successful defense project ever undertaken by India. It gave us a great fighter that combines Russian aircraft design and Western avionics. Unlike the equally good but sadly neglected Mig-29, the Su-27/30/35 family has seen commercial success so spare parts will...

"alleged" massacre of some Hindu pilgrims travelling by train Indeed. They could have set their train on fire themselves, or maybe it was aliens. I wonder what would happen if a group of Hindus set fire to a train full of muslims in Pakistan? And as far as Ayodhya is concerned: we have seen...

The writer is a hindu fanatic. He is spot on about the mindset of some (but not all) muslims – note that every single region in India that was majority muslim chose to be independent, drive out minorities (150m muslims in India, how many Hindus left in Pakistan?) and become an Islamic...

Bad news for those killed and injured. These bomb blasts are futile, though, as Mumbaikars are not cowards like those responsible for these terrorist attacks. I was in Mumbai during earlier blasts, and people just shrug them off and continue with their work. There were bomb blasts in the trains...

I agree. Both giving out confidential info on sensitive matters such as defence as well as giving out personal info of any kind on the net (on any forum) is not advisable. What you mentioned was good to read but please be careful not to say such things in public. Maybe, you can edit your post...

Airframe: “Russia is still using Soviet Union design. China has been mix and matching with multiple aircrafts.” Russia’s Sukhoi team has decades of experience DESIGNING Jets, and have succeeded in consistently making good jets. China stealing and modifying 3 different designs...

Amazing pics, the Russians build the most amazing planes, thank you all. The most interesting aspect, not mentioned as much, are the monstrous engines. PAK-FA should be able to do supercruise easily.

My two cents Airframe / aerodynamics: The Russians have a massive head start, and they build the most manoeuvrable, beautiful fighter jets in the world. The Chinese experience is based on F-7 copies (J-7, JF-17), or designs based on other jets (J-11, J-10). Advantage Russia Engine: same...

“@Indian members, note that the T-90 model you operate is the downgraded version of the one used by the Russians (they never give out their best)” The T-90M is a much improved version, and the older T-90S would be just 310 units. We will have 1330 T-90M so the more useful question...

Arjun vs AK = no chance for AK, 59 tons vs 46 tons, Arjun has superior composite armour, better gun T-90 vs AK = AK has a slight edge because of better mobility T-90 vs T-80 = even T-72 vs AK/T-90: T-72 inferior but much lower gap after completion of upgrade T-72 vs T-55/Zarrar: no contest So...

There is a limit to the extent of superiority you can develop over the enemy. As of now, by 2014 once the T-72 upgrade is completed, Indian armour will be strong enough to deal with Pak. 2nd line tanks: 1950 relatively new, full upgraded T-72 against 1500 T-55/Al Zarrar/T-85 1.3 times numbers...

So 20 years of hard work has paid off – the LCA is finally here, and mk2 will be even better with improved radar, GE414 engines which have tremendous thrust (15% more than GE404) and other improvements. The spin-off for Indian industry, and development in expertise is unimaginable. Just 20...

This ship and its captain have a history of provocative behaviour. Its like a tiny kid on the playground trying to be aggresive towards a larger kid, who is much bigger and stronger, and every time the bigger kid refuses to hit back, the smaller kid apne aap ko tees mar khan samajhne lagta...

I don’t see why such a fuss is being made about the MRCA selection. The decision to reject the US fighters was just so obviously correct 1. They are old technology. It doesn’t matter if they have been fitted with AESA radar or whatever, would you buy an Ambassador fitted with a new...

Do you have a source for that? Its pretty clear though that even the rafale would cost more than $10.4bn, (thats $83mn apiece, which is close to costs mentioned for rafale in wikipedia but does not factor in inflation)