you know what guys RCS ALSO DEPENDS ON THE TRANSMITTING RADARS POWER hence term RCS is a grossly mistaken term
so simply its like holding a torch in a dark alley and things you might see will depend on two things
1 size of the object (target) in front of you
2 power of the torch you are holding
most of you guys simply miss the second point altogether hence it also depends on the power transmitted by the radar .....so MKI radar obviously produces more power than f-16 mlu ones hence f-16 having smaller SO CALLED RCS may not have any significant advantage at all
of course this is true, but almost every radar manufacturer will give you the detection range of an X rcs object at Y range. Using those figures you can calculate the detection range of a given RCS sized object of a given radar set.
i will try to find the input figures again so i can show you the formula and maths behind it, but the Su-30MKI has an RCS of something like 8+ times that of a late model F-16. That's huge.
and yes, both planes should be able to detect each other beyond the maximum range of their MRAAMss, but being able to detect first beyond that is still an advantage. if AWACS or other acquisition radar is not available it allows you potentially approach from an angle where radar on an opposing fighter will not pick you up, or pick you up at an even shorter range.
i'm of the opinion that the su-30mki is the better fighter, but it's not a huge difference over late-model f-16s. the only problem for the PAF is their limited number of late-model F-16s and it remains to be seen what the FC-20 will end up being performance wise.