Everyone here has read about the shoot down of the French Rafale being operated by the Indian Air Force in the furball with Pakistani fighters. Many are trying to rethink how they view the Rafale & J-10.
I think that's incorrect.
What I believe everyone should be looking at is the fight itself. Yeah the platforms are important but I think the payloads are the real stars of this fight.
Think about it.
Everyone believes this was a fight between the Rafale and J-10. I think it was a battle between the AIM-120 and the PL-15.
We don't know alot about the fight so I'm ahead of my skis on this but apparently the PL-15 won.
What can we speculate on...What do we know?
1. Both sides are saying it was a beyond visual range fight.
2. We can guess that AWACS or maybe even ground radars assisted in the fight.
3. We can guess that both sides were ripple firing missiles at range.
4. We know that the planes involved should have been using their AESA style radars.
5. We guess that full electronic countermeasures were used by both sides.
My point. We need bigger, longer ranged missiles that are NOT confined to the size of single/twin seat fighters. We need bigger AESA arrays that give longer range and can identify/target more hostiles. We need longer range so that we reduce our reliance on tanker support. Lastly we need the capability in this new platform to go supersonic so that it can both add energy to its missiles, get out of dodge if necessary and possibly power energy weapons that might come online.
What am I really calling for? The B-1R!
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Fill the nose cone with a huge honking AESA array. 24 AIM-260 missiles. It can fly at distance. It can loiter in its patrol area. It can do the job of a whole squadron of F-35s with much less support. Partner this plane with a "scout" UAV to detect enemy fighters at distance and the threat envelope goes way down. Make those UAVs stealthy and they might even remain undetected while the enemy is dodging (trying to dodge) incoming missiles.
A pair of B-1Rs along with a half dozen stealthy scout UAVs (similarly equipped with AESAs) could take on a regiment of enemy aircraft and probably come out on top.
Dedicate a few B-21s to act as penetration "fighters" and you can pick off the stragglers that avoid the main clash because they can get closer to make those kills.
Regardless I believe that once we get the full tick tock of the furball between India and Pakistan it will show that fighter combat has evolved to a point where it SHOULD look different from what we're doing right now.
The fighter mafia as we know it should be disbanded.
