i never said here they were alone or they were having partners
u completely missed the bottomline,they developed it at the cost of time rather than going for reverse eng
I didn't miss anything...
To reverse engineer you need something that has already been fully developed. Take the Mig 21 for example. It did take Chinese some time and testing to make their F-7. You cannot simply make Rafale of the standard that it is today by reverse engineering.
The program started in 1986. The top fighters in development at the time were F-16 BLK 52 and F-15C/Ds and F/A 18 plus the new JSF and F/A 22. Which one could have been used for reverse engineering?
USA wouldn't provide the samples. And obviously you are not going to reverse engineer F-16 because then you will end up with a cheaper f-16, not more advanced. Rafale is half a gen ahead of the F-16 BLK 15/20s. That's what is going to make it last 30 more years. I don't see F-16s going that long. When you start from scratch, it takes hell lot of time, but you learn alot, your R&D increases substantially.
I am studying engineering in USA. The way they teach us to think originally and innovatively is something that Pakistan, China or India can not do at the moment. We have to put money into R&D at the university level and then corporations. The western world from the start has been original. Look how many patents they get every year and look how many actually turn into excellent ventures.
Reverse engineering solves the time problem. Less time, less development costs. But you learn nothing. There is a reason why we the south asian countries lack in Metallurgy and composites. Had we been developing our own fighters/ships/submarines from scratch, we too would be leaders of innovation. The French had immense experience with the Mirage series. That's what helped them.
What is it that they say......'that need is the mother of invention '
Long post but please do try to read it.