The fight between Rafale and Eurofighte was kicked off when the French walk out of the European consortium because the latter did not agree to the former concept. The French wanted a midsize multirole while the Europeans sticked to a heavy air superiority fighter.
The European consortium apart of selling to themselves manage to sell a considerable numbers of units to other countries. They all at some point or another found Typhoon was too expensive to operate and was a great waste especially because it had very limited capabilities. And their regret crept in without any way out at hand.
The French concept which in the begining found itself a tough sell proved itself right in everyway when they performed outstandindly in the Afghanistan and libya conflict and ultimately found its way through the heart of its first customer, India. The likelihood of other foreign sales might follow seemed to have brighten up while the European consortium's Typoon have faded to dim.
The European consortium have got it wrong bigtime by not following the French set standard and now is paing for it dearly.
Of course if the Europeans would have agreed to the French concept and Dassault was part of the consortium, then it is French and the rest of the rouge world would have lost out in the end because the condition of sales would still be determined by US.
In 1998 the British, heavily influence by US foreign policies, placed an arms blockade on India depriving her of spares for her Hawks. The French did nothing of that sort, supplied the Indians parts to fly their Mirages.
Again, we see that the Saudis Typhoons could not be equipped with Lightning pod because US opposed to its sales. The Saudis Aiforce ended up using Damocles for their Eurofoghters, which the French happily provided. I wonder who had to pay for the extra cost to make them compatibles to each other? US then back stabbed the British and her European allies by selling to this very frustrated Arab airforce more F 15 wipping out any chances of further Typhoon sales there.
If the French was in the consortium they would be eating themselves alive for allowing this to happen and luckily they are not.
The leaked Swiss report have devalued Eurofighters worth and made the Rafale's bullish.
The Rafale is a complete multirole platform able to perform air to air , air to surface, land and sea role. It's size too is suitable for land and carrier based strike.
It seemed like the French has got everything right. That is why India made her choice.
Only it's future is seemed as unpredictable. The Rafale needs bigger air intake for better thrust, helmet mounted sight and stealth capability to survive future markets.
It is unsure they have the funds to do so, but future sales might pay for it.
Typhoon progress is stalled by its partners that can not unitely decide what to do with next. To make it worse each country to do not exactly know what they want with the fighter. They should have allowed the consortium to be led by the British and turn the Eurofighter into a multirole. Each state will then buy the same multirole eurofighter according to their needs and affordibility.
Nevertheless the international politics took precedent over logical rationalization and doomed the eurofighter future.
Both Typhoon and Rafael are outdated in stealth design unless they find a solution to plasma stealth technology. This makes F22 and F35 ahead in their designs.
Stealth aside, on an overall basis a Rafale but not Typhoon is any day better than the two American types.
However there is much prospect left for improvement of these American fighters. Come a time even the Rafale will be left behind, especially with the coming of Russian T 50 and Chinese J 20.
French and European consortium needs to learn from past lesson and combine their resources to produce the next future stealth multirole fighter. They must elect a leader with a good concept and all the countries belonging to the consortium shall buy the same type of aircraft to create an abled economic scale to compete at an international level.
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