Indonesia and the Rafale
 

Hot on the heels of Indonesia wishing to buy the 9 x Typhoons from my other neck of the woods , now Indonesia is interested in the Rafale according to the article below.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...c8xna7uiljHWhA

cheers

Indonesia shopping around to see what the best deal is - they need a very small number of fast jest as Air Defence isn't really a big issue for them - money spent on the Air Force is channeled to transport and marine surveillance both of which are far more critical

Not really a surprise, think the fact its not american is going to be its big selling regardless of its other capabilities, the embargo on parts for the F-16 really hurt them and could never see them taking that risk again for a while.

Yet they say they want the F-15ex, as well as the Rafale.

F-15 was an and/or proposition, still might get some. They are getting a rafale because they could get embargoed again, it was the reason they have russian aircraft, they had to go that way, at least with the rafale if they get embargoed on parts for possible F-15 and F-16 they will have rafale and KF-21

If you want a fighter that wont be subject to country of origin embargos then a French product is the worst thing you could do. There is a very specific reason RAAF Mirages didn't get to take on North Vietnamese MiG 21's north of the DMZ.

Also, they didnt have the legs to get up North.
I'd fancy my chances with the Mig in a Mig-21 V Mirage 3 contest

Essentially the RAAF didn't have anything to offer for the air war up North

The Israeli’s would probably disagree with you.

Fair point - but that is nothing to do with the relative performance of the aeroplanes!

France just announced its up to 42 Rafales with an intial delivery of 6, so that would be F-15 out

https://www.reuters.com/business/aer...ys-2022-02-10/

The main reason is the government wouldn't allow its citizens to operate outside of the South Vietnam area of operations, not allowed into the North or Cambodia.Israel was operating over lot shorter distances than would have been required for a foray to Hanoi.

Also request to purchase 36 F-15ex + upgrades to a F16 have been posted

My comment in relation to the Israeli's was in response to the remark about the Mig 21 being a better platform than the Mirage. (Both were very limited in range due to being essentially interceptors). The majority of forays into North Vietnam were supported by Aerial tankers, many an aircraft saved by tankers on their return to the ship, Thailand or Sth Vietnam.

Request to purchase 36 x F-15EX for $14 Billion approved.

The proposed package would include up to 36 F-15ID aircraft, 87 F110-GE-129 or F100-PW-229 engines, 45 AN/APG-82(v)1 advanced electronically scanned array radars, 45 AN/ALQ-250 Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability Systems, 48 Advanced Display Core Processor (ADCP) II digital computers, forty AN/AAQ-13 LANTIRN navigation pods, 40 AN/AAQ-33 Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods, among other systems.

https://breakingdefense.com/2022/02/...f-rafale-deal/