“don’t the MiG-29s have short legs?”
That has been corrected in the new Mig 35.
“IMHO, the better U.S. offering would be the F-16 Block 60.”
F-16 IMO has even shorter legs then F-18s or Mig 35s and its payload is far less then any of the planes in the race except for the Gripens. F-16s are old tech and suck big time, only good for the Pakis.
The new F-16 variants,which have conformal fuel tanks have a combat radius of over 700 miles,which is better than the Super Hornet & probably ahead of the Mig-35.The F-16’s single engine helps in that regard.
It has a payload of around 7 tonnes also would be same as the Super Hornet & be better than the Mig-35 for the same mission,given that the latter 2 have to carry external fuel tanks.The downside for the new F-16s is that it’s CFTs reduce it’s agility considerably.
Good to hear about the MiGs. Didn’t realize the F-16s were so far behind the pack. Makes me kinda sad since they’ve been such a good multirole platform over the years. I did think they had pretty good legs though, especially with the new conformal tanks they have. Plus, aren’t the Super Hornets kinda big and expensive these days?
I don’t think the Block 60 F-16s lacks for anything really tech-wise vis a vis the Super Hornet. It’s not like India would be getting F-16As or anything.