Skipping over the entire lines of Rafales with PESA radar is certainly… a choice.
I do believe F2.2 would have been a great first one, you get the AASM IIR, a PESA radar, overall good
F3R without most of its features just to have AESA radar though?
If they had added a Rafale F2 (which keeps an air-to-ground capability and the same air-to-air weaponry) and a Eurofighter from the early 2000s, they wouldn’t have all the problems that are currently present. And as you say, I don’t understand the idea of upgrading all versions with the PESA radar to put the first version with the AESA.
As I explained earlier today it is not new for a French aircraft to find itself with fewer missiles than its adversaries, the only aircraft that has a similar loadout for France is the 2000-5F. And yet this lack of loadout has never prevented the aircraft from performing. If the radar is implemented correctly, the aircraft will be largely competent
AIM-120 with ballet lessons on a platform so maneuverable it makes almost all other airframes look like bricks with what could have been one of the few PESA radars in the game?
You could do what the Mirage F1C-200 is known for and almost guaranteeing 2 kills due to your 2 really good missiles, now imagine that with 6
Even current EFTs we get are comparable with F.2.2, especially considering it still has MSA, limited A2A arsenal (-variants) and gimped Brimstones. The only “real deal” of later EFTs would be CAPTOR-E, Meteor and IRIS-T / ASRAAM by now.
There isn’t any precise sources for the radar nor how well it works as a whole for those missiles and i think it is the same for how well a countermeasure works, so yeah i agree with you, it’s only up to gaijin’s mind so it will be smooth enough if it ever happens.
Rafale pilots tried the Scorpion well before the F4.1 standard, however it was never selected for various reasons (weight too high, price too expensive…). At least this addition makes a minimum of sense (moreover two other HMDs had been tried: the TopHowl and the TopSight).
It’s very true. But I don’t understand specifically how they make their choices for the equipment of the planes, sometimes they take the capacities of the basic version while other times they are the capacities of the planes at the end of their life.
Starting to think if the 2000D RMV would have been added in a better state (And later state) the Rafale LF.1 would have been a decent choice for a CAP aircraft to add early
Just not a fan of how fast they’re pushing through technology, decades fly by in a single BR gap rn