AM 120 IS ABOUT 70KM I guess. They have serious disadvantages against Russian and Chinese long range missiles. But they relay on Stealth so 70/80km range is well enough. Not the case for F15/f16.
Bull shit. The Range depends on the Speed of the fighter jet platform, the Altitude, and the path of the missile approach, and since no BVR takes the straight approach the range doesn't matter much. Rather its the seeker qty and the range to identify and lock the target, and the qty of the Fuse which makes the BVR dangerous.
Tejas was menat to replace all all single fighter, or not ?
LCA Tejas was the product of the Indian Quest to develop the technologies to develop the Fighter plane of its own and lower the technological gaps which India lags. Its the technology which was developed with the LCA and is quiete prominent in each fighter plane of the IAF inventory with its software based UHF radio, the Operational Data link, the Turbo fan development, and various upgrades such as Jaguar Darin, and MIG-27 UPG.
If the Plane for the development in India to replacement of the MIG-21 was the target than India could hire the Dassault to design a plane, which HAL could mass produced and would have replaced it too long, but India took the more longer and difficult path for the development of the capabilities to make herself true self sufficient. Yes its true that their are many grey areas, but some how India have to start from some where and this is just what the LCA means.
It is true that the earlier idea was to develop a medicore fighter plane which would be single engine jet which would replace the MIG-21, but with the change of the conditions and the technologies, India have to change the plans, thus gone for the MIG-21 BISON upgrade to equip the 3 gen MIG-21 with the BVRAAM and MIG-27 UPG upgrade. In the present secenario and conditions, the IAF have to change from the role based fighter plane concept to Multirole fighter plane concept.
either the Gripen E/F or Falcon 70 would make sense.
thinking Gripen E/F would be the favorite
-low cost and maintainability
-can operate from short runways and roads
-swashbuckler radar+Meteor=unmatched BVR combat
but then the Falcon 70
-much better range
-better growth potential
-more diverse weapon selection
-potential upgrade to F-35 in the future
-troll Pakistan with better F-16 and weapons
The requirement is for the lower end, example you cannot equiped the whole USAF with the F-22 Raptor.
Rafale F3R is their for that Role, and for the Multirole role, IAF already have MIG-29 UPG, Mirrage 2000 UPG, and the SU-30 MKI upgrade plan for Super Sukhoi upgrade, bringing the limited Multirole capability. So what for adding another fighter jet and that too US one, whose weaponary would not share with any other fighter jet in IAF.