Shouldn't be a shocker. Rafale has always been known to
be cheaper than the Typhoon.
Also, many pluses on the technical side.
(a) It has an AESA radar in service. Still none for Typhoon.
(b) It has a workable carrier variant. Something that will
appeal to the Indians.
(c) It can fire all munitions eg meteor that the Typhoon has
plus the AASM. Typhoon tranche 1s don't have A2G capability.
(d) The French are desperate enough to offer higher tech
transfer.
(e) The Indians has been spending billions getting munitions for
its Mirages which can now be used by the Rafale as well.
Other than (b) & (e), same reasons why Rafale went down
to the finals vis the F-15 in the RSAF comp.
Its a good choice for the IAF. Funnily enough, they could
probably get many more F-16s for the same price but with
the PAF using F-16s, it was always an underdog. The Chinese will
build 2-3 J-10s for every Rafale. The stealthy J-20 might
even enter service at the same time as the Rafale (at lower
cost somemore). That would be a game-changer.
