What’s interesting is that the Mirage 4000 has two engines with more thrust than the Eurofighter’s.
Mirage-4000:
2x M53-P2 = 9770kgf x2 = 19,540kgf
Eurofighter:
2x EJ-200 = 8180kgf x2 = 16,360kgf
20% greater thrust for the Mirage 4000 in-game. Imagine if we had a whole team of people working on the Mirage 4000 the way we do currently for the Rafale :))).
Mirage 4000 really had a lot of potential and was just cobbled together by Dassault out of their funding with no government funding as a private venture.
I take your point but just comparing the thrust I don’t think showcases why the EJ200 is regarded by virtually everyone as such a good engine (and also why the M-88 would be regarded similarly).
The specific fuel consumption differences and the thrust to weight and the volume differences are the real advantages of the EJ200, also consider EJ200 is designed with a WAR power rating of 95kn that was removed later on as thrust was sufficient.
Definitely, but I think ultimately it would’ve killed the Rafale as we now know it, and equally so, there would’ve been absolutely no competition between whatever Mirage 4000 evolution Dassault cooked up and literally any seriously proposed design variant of the Eurofighter, ultimately leading to a loss of French relevance in the combat aerospace industry.
I think at best you could propose it as a Mirage 2000 replacement in limited numbers which would lead the French air and space force to a potentially better situation in the last few decades, with a more relevant aircraft than the Mirage 2000 (M4K being closer to the F-15 than F-16) as the backbone as the Rafale started to come online.
Of course what makes a good engine isn’t simply the thrust output but also the many different factors you pointed out, but the question is what determines if an aircraft is the “thrust king”, wouldn’t that solely come down purely to the thrust of the engines on the aircraft?
F-15E and SR-71 are often regarded as a thrust monsters but the pecularities or downsides of its other attributes of the engines aren’t really looked at there.
It depends. The Mirage 4000 offered greater nose size (bigger and better radar potential) and greater payload than the Rafale and could have adopted some of the sensors like IRST/TV while also utilizing ESA radars which the Eurofighter did not equip for a long time. It could have competed against the Eurofighter similar to the F-15E and F-15EX if the Mirage 4000 was upgraded over time, but it would have been inferior to the Rafale in terms of signature reduction (and also sensor fusion) since it did not have that feature from the outset like the Rafale did nor was it planned to.
So something interesting about that. There was no further evidence found for that triple rack MICA. But there does exist a Dassault document on the Mirage 4000 that showed how 14x Magic missiles were mounted on the M4K without the use of triple racks, so this was theoretically possible. The youtuber Meumeu who is part of the French defense industry talked a bit about it on his channel.
Tbf, the J-10C can be considered as new aircraft already, the differences between J-10A and J-10C are massive.
As the F.5 will change quite a lot electronics and replace old cables with new Fiber Optics. Since technology has changed significantly over the last decade, systems are not only many times more powerful, but also lighter or don’t increase weight in any meaningful matter (like RBE2 to RBE2-AA), as the components are becoming smaller and require less space, not necessarly though.
Of course, there will also be new systems / additions, but I hardly think we should expect an increase in overall weight; it may even be that we end up with zero weight gain/loss and still have much more powerful and new systems; maybe in addition to the new engines.
As for F.6, there are already rumors of an adjustment to the airframe to improve stealth capabilities - exactly how that will look like (if at all) remains to be seen, but I assume that new materials (such as the composite-bonded structure developed by Japan, combined with compound design using layered alloys for example), which not only greatly improve stealth but can also reduce weight, could be used. However, there may also just be additional use of RAM, considering there is still enough space left for on the Rafale - we’ve to see.
MICA motor rework and MICA TVC angle was shot down due to using “restricted sources” even though according to US laws, once a document has been made available in a library, then it is no longer restricted.
Jokes entirely aside, it may just be Rafale can’t reasonably fit an AMK-esque kit, whereas improved EJ200s are actually a real option. Seems every relevant country just opted not to use them though lol.
