IAF will be ordering more Rafales. A second tranche of 36 is next and it will kick off a production program. We estimate at least 150 will be ordered for the IAF. And it's possible that the IN will be the bigger operator of this jet.
150 for the IAF and more than 150 for the IN? See you in 15-20 years, my friend.
So 293 Su-30MKIs, 300+ Rafales, 245 MiG-21s, 130 SEPECAT Jaguars, 65 MiG-29s, 50 Mirage 2K
and how many Su-57s coming? loooool. Tejas, MiG-27, and others my goodness. With a large number of Rafales, there won't be a need for several of the other brands.
Cam-owwn, maaan.
It has low resolution, lacks a TV channel
What, do you wanna watch Bollywood movies in the backseat?
It is not even the equivalent of a Litening G3.
That's why L'Armee de L'Air and French Navy have been using it on their Rafales with tremendous success while what have we heard from the G-3 lutnig or whatever?
Here, bro, refresh your memory from this hovering Israeli love ma man.
Damocles
Multi-function
Compatible with existing and future weapons systems
High performance/long stand-off range
Eye-safe Laser Range-Finder
Operational in all weather conditions/all theaters
Modular design for future upgrade
In service, integrated on Mirage 2000-5, Rafale, SEM and SU-30
Advanced technology featuring state-of-the-art staring array detector, robust new generation tracking systems, superior image processing, 3D location, laser spot detection.
Powerful laser and high resolution imagery provide the aircraft with a long stand-off range and tactical ground/air defense system survivability.
Missions and Functions
Air-to-Ground
Compatible with laser guided weapons, INS/GPS guided missiles and imagery-guided weapons
Attacks in autonomous or cooperative mode, using integrated laser spot tracker
High laser energy and high resolution laser imagery providing long security range and high level of survability
Damage assessment capability at long range
Target recognition capability
3D localisation
Integrated navigation FLIR
Reconnaissance
Medium range day/night small targets reconnaissance
Air-to-Air
Day/night visual airborne target identification
And BTW, this is back from 2013. This pod has had several upgrades since then and quite possibly why the EAF was not only able to integrate the Rafale into the air force so quickly and smoothly, but even perform escort missions into Libya with the F-16s less than a year after the delivery of the first few.
As for Talios, as a sensor it is inferior to the Litening G4, it has only half the resolution.
Cam-owwn, maaan. Enough with the sappy love for the Israelis bro aren't you embarrassed by all that gleaming?
Talios, and when it comes to the Egyptian Air Force to join what is arguably the top tier pod currently in any airforce in the Sniper XR will step things up to another level. They should then shift the Damocles to the Mirage 2Ks
The Talios targeting pod has high-definition(HD), mid-wave infrared (MWIR) thermal imager with a dual field-of-view combined visible and short-wave infrared (VIR/SWIR)
HDTV camera and a four-laser suite of rangefinder, designator, spot tracker and marker. Lightning G4....
Its only advantage is the sensor fusion aspects with Rafale.
And what an advantage that is! We both know that very well from our discussion on that other thread about the F-35's EW suite. The Rafale's fusion cockpit is like none other.
The Israelis have already started offering the G5. Even though Litening is superior to French pods, the Talios is still an option for India's Rafales.
lol! With all this Israeli love and French pods bashing, why would you ever consider the Talios now?
Like I mentioned to you earlier, I think it's a commonality issue more so than anything else for the IAF to use Israeli, generic, aftermarket, cheapo, second hand shhhtufff.
I find it weird that Egypt has not ordered Meteor. Maybe it's not cleared for export to Egypt yet or it's too expensive.
Oh we have, believe you me. Those same ones you have all that love and afffection for are apparently ascared and go way out of their way to block any kind of modern, high-tech powerful weaponry to Egypt. And if it's not them, it's because of them that these suppliers just assume we're the bad guys and can't be trusted. Not sure what the issue is since we've abided by the peace treaty more so than Israel has, go figure that one.
We've operated the 4th largest fleet of F-16's (and only by 20-40 less than Turkey) for all these years with only the AIM-7 Sparrow as our ultimate BVR A2A missile. Imagine that? Only since early 2016 have we finally introduced and very decent BVR missile in the MICA IR/ER, but I still have disagreements with other members about the true range of that missile compared to something like the AIM-120/R-77, but that's a story for another day. The EAF chief of the Air Force was asked about it's "60km" range and he smiled and said "it's much greater than that." Well, I can't say anything against that since who am I to disagree with the Mr. Younis?
Aside from it's terrific seekers, LOAF and other amazing features, it's range just doesn't seem like a great leap to that of the AIM-7.
But at least now we're operating those MICAs and with the MiG-35s; the R-73 and R-77 (R-77-1 export version would've been much better, though, but it's better than nothing) so now all the EAF needs to do is make sure they get the Meteor and the additional 24 Rafales to have 48 of them with pretty much the best A2A missile available to date and it would be a very decent AF. Maybe then the US will see all this and say "what the heck's the difference now" and clear the AIM-120C7 lol. AIM-9x too would also be nice since the R-73 (arguably better than the AIM-9x) is in the EAF now. But I highly doubt it. Clearance not withstanding, it's more of a procedure than just supplying the missiles since the entire software and possibly wiring for almost 200 F-16's would need upgrading. The additional 24 (well unfortunately now 23) F-16 Block 52's I would imagine have the system already integrated.
The Hellenic Air Force just got the deal signed for the Viper upgrade on their F-16 fleet and what a terrific package they got! It would be really nice to see the EAF get even half the upgrades the Greeks got (even just IFF sensors and the new SABR radar).
This is why the Qatari's went for Sniper.
Which begs the question if the EAF can integrate their Sniper-XR pods to the Rafale. They won't need to with Talios coming but it would be very interesting to know if that's a relatively easy procedure or not.
El Presidente Sisi riding the bed of his Ford F-250 again and inspecting the Mistral and Gowind at the new inlet dock in Alexandria.