Tag: F/A-18

Brazilian U-Turn: Relief and Confusion for Rivals

The news of the reprieve is greeted with honest bewilderment. “We don’t know what’s happening,” said one official from the Swedish vendor, a rival to Dassault’s Rafale of France for the Brazilian order. Indications are also being drawn from the absence of the Brazilian Air Force chief at the announcement of the deal.

Rafale wins Brazilian order

This may be significant for the Indian MMRCA contest as five of the original six contenders for the Brazilian order are also vying for Indian Air Force order. “We came up on top in the technical evaluation,” said a source from Dassault, who also indicated the parameters of the two contests to be similar.

F-16 at the MMRCA proving grounds tomorrow

So far, the aircraft was in the week long first phase of trials which consisted of training on the aircraft for Indian Air Force (IAF) test pilots comprising academic exercises, cockpit familiarization as well ‘a bit of flying’, as one insider put it.

Gripen takes a hit in MMRCA race after US bullying: Report

The Jerusalem Post has reported that under US pressure the Israeli Defense Ministry has ordered the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to withdraw from a project to jointly develop the Gripen IN with Gripen’s parent company Saab. The Gripen IN is the aircraft Saab has been proposing to offer the Indian Air Force.

Rafale ejection from MMRCA race confirmed

Sources in the Indian Ministry of Defense told StratPost the aircraft was out of the running for failure to meet the General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR) during the technical evaluation. Read the whole story behind the reasons for the disqualification of Dassault’s aircraft.

Aero India 2009: Bigger than ever

The 25 participating countries include UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands and Ukraine. China will be participating at this year’s Air Show for the first time.