sancho
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2009
- Messages
- 13,011
- Reaction score
- 27
- Country
- Location
How do you know that Boeing is the only one which offered last minute change??? you have any source for it??... secondly you have the proposal of boeing submitted to MoD?? how do you know EPE is not offered in the first case??
Now lets see, EF and it's EJ 200 has the highest TWR ratio, clearly no new engine needed. Mig 35, Rafale and F16IN are offered with their latest engine versions and has high TWRs anyway. Gripen NG is offered with a new engine, the GE 414G instead of the Volvo RM 12 and although the NG came late to the trials, it was available to test the engine.
Which leaves us with the F18SH, that has the lowest TWR of all competitors and the only engine available for tests in the trials was the normal GE 414 engines (98kN AB thrust), because the EPE is nothing more than a demo programm so far.
And also think about the TOI report about IAF not beeing satisfied with the thrust of the F18SH and that further negotiations are going on. What do you think these further negotiation might be?
and the idea of developing EPE seems to be there and it is not a new idea that sprung up when the thrust doesnt seems enough .....
Wrong, the initial idea was that an export customer funds it, because the USN, nor the US government wants to do it and that is still the case! This new article just says, IF the US government cancells the GE engine development for F35, GE would divert funds that were planed for that engine, to fund the GE 414 EPE engine. But there is no decision about the F35 engine yet and so far GE will have to wait. Also think about this, if the EPE was part of the initial offer and GE had the neccesary funds, they had time from 2007 (when the RFP for MMRCA was sent out) till today to develop at least a test version of the engine integrated in a fighter. But that is not the case, isn't it?
Yeah may be EPE was not in the test craft... but it applies the same for all manufactures... No AESA in all the test crafts except US manufactures...
Except of the EF (that might had showed the CESAR AESA demonstrator during the weapon trials in Europe), all fighters came with AESA installed to the trials in India.