Aero India: MMRCA must read

A big thumbs up to Ashley J. Tellis of the Carnegie Endownment for International Peace. Over the last week I've been greatly enjoying his 133 page epic about the Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft competition.

Of particular interest were his in-depth comments about the AESA radars. While the Europeans all have development models, the US aircraft already have fully functional systems.  The chart on page 115 also illustrates the respective costs of the aircraft in a flyaway state - and shows how massive US aircraft purchases over the years have driven down the costs of the F-16 and F-18.

A great warm-up read to the big show next week.

http://carnegieendowment.org/files/dogfight.pdf