Gripen has more CM’s as it is confirmed to be able to carry BOL rails on 4 pylons, Eurofighter hasn’t been shown with more than 2 rails just on the outer wingtips though some of the new BAE marketting renders seem like they might show 4.
Rafale has less flares with a maximum of 64 flares and 224 chaff.
Eurofighter has a maximum of 320 BOL CM’s split between flares or chaff plus up to 32 programmable flares/chaff (you can take either). IMO the ideal loadout would probably be half and half, maybe more of the smart chaff than smart flares as BOL should cover it when it gets unnerfed.
MAWS i’m not gonna claim to be the most informed in but all three have MAWS.
Eurofighter has 3 AESA MAWS antennae giving 360 degree coverage around the aircraft, PIRATE is optional and can also track missiles in the frontal aspect using both UV and IR tracking including once the motor has finished burning, the LWS also provides 360 degree coverage from lasers.
Rafale has 2 UV MAWS antennae though I don’t know the coverage of them. These can detect missiles though struggle more once the motor has burnt out.
Gripen also has MAWS not sure what kind, also as Skyward-G on Gripen E is based on PIRATE I imagine it has similar functionality though the system is smaller and has lower processing power.
No, for now Germany showed interest for these (at least that was reported by some sources, I’m not very sure), but no purchase occurred. Also if I’m not mistaking, the EFA ECR Is supposed to use the AGM88E or the new AARGM-ER (spear ew was not mentioned for now).
it was single carried on RAF aircraft, first test firing to be done later this year
but also remember that SPEAR-3 is primarily an F-35 weapon. Eurofighter integration(if it happens) will come at a much later date.
Germany so far has expressed no interest in acquiring it and its not even confirmed for the ECR variant.
EF EK step 1 is mostly just retrofitting the arexis suite and adding AGM-88E AARGM (block 1 or 2 idk).
further upgrades (possibly step 2) can include new weapons but then the focus would probably be on SPEAR-EW
SPEAR-EW wouldnt be the only competitor as Rafael, Diehl and Hensoldt have announced a partnership to design/produce a SPICE-250ER variant but as a jammer, like SPEAR-EW. (Diehl + Rafael would be producing the missile, Rafael + Hensoldt would be producing the EW component)
so the C-8s are definitely for the Eurofighter and an additional 122mln worth have been contracted (on top of the previous 178mln)
laughable stock numbers tbh
at most there will be maybe 250 c-8s not including the ones from the f-35 order. for 150 or so eurofighters (this number is growing btw). + max 300 meteors (probably less bcs test launches here and there maybe)
the potential order of 1250 iris-ts or so will probably also only result in an order of what feels like 7… pathetic
thats what the US approved as a potential export. approved just means thats the maximum that could in theory be contracted. but it wasnt… total value of that was north of 1bln
