EF2000 vs Rafaele in Stealth!

[dabrownguy]

This is one of the best questions ever. Is the EF-2000 stealther than the French Rafaele? vs versa? Because the stealth on Rafaele seems to be the active radar cancelation thing but what good is that if its carring loads of bombs or missiles.

 

[Aussie Digger]

With no data to back this up, I think the Rafale is the stealthier design. The airframe as admitted by the designers is designed to be "discreet" rather than stealthy. It has certain stealth features which are obvious to the lay person, including some stealth shaping and some use of radar absorbent materials (RAM) but it's overall design hasn't been sacrificed to be totally stealthy. In addition it is designed as a "low emission" aircraft and it has that active cancellation thingy, (which may or may not be simply "marketing speak")...

The EF-2000 on the other hand does not appear to boast any "stealth" features at all in it's design to my eye at least and if it has any stealth features,, they are likely to be in the area of RAM and electronic emissions, rather than shaping. The EF-2000 does have one significant advantage though, it has recently demonstrated sustained super-cruising capability (ie: Supersonic speeds being achieved without the use of afterburner) at about Mach 1.3, which is only about Mach 0.2 slower than the F-22 has publicly demonstrated...

This of course has nothing to do with stealth, but does provide a significant air combat edge over the Rafale, which has to my knowledge, not yet publicly demonstrated any "super-cruising" capability... Cheers.

 

[JWCook]

Well the stealth issue is one thats going to remain a bit of a mystery, perhaps the following peice can shed some light on which aircraft is the better all round combat aircraft.

(From Western Daily Press)

The Chairman of UKIP Exeter chooses to attack the Eurofighter, or Typhoon as it is called in RAF service, not because it is a bad, expensive warplane but because it is a way of attacking European co-operation (WMN, August 24).

There have been problems with the development of this aircraft, due to the changing nature of combat and the shift from a single Cold War enemy to multiple threats from hot-spots around the globe.

This is true also of many other major defence programmes. David Challice fails to mention that the US-led Joint Strike Fighter is overweight and is suffering cost and schedule overruns. Nor does he address fears that the US is squeezing the UK out of involvement in key technologies on the project. Despite investing US2 billion in JSF development, the UK is still the junior partner on JSF, not the equal partner it is in European co-operation.

Mr Challice is too scathing about Typhoon. It is a very capable aircraft and better than the American F16 he champions. In a recent competition run by Singapore to find a replacement for its F16 fighters, Typhoon was up against the American F15E and the French Rafale. Typhoon won all three combat tests, including one in which a single Typhoon defeated three RSAF F16s, and reliably completed all planned flight tests. According to one observer, neither competitor aircraft could claim the same (Defence Analysis August 2004).

Well this seems to confirm the Typhoon as the best AtoA fighter for sale in the world.

Cheers