In terms of sheer capability (once all the upgrades come through) the Rafale and the Typhoon are ahead of the pack, but wouldn’t a Typh/Rafale purchase basically bring in another airframe that is not just equal but better than the MKI? Instead of going for a ‘hi/lo’ mix they would have a ‘hi/hi+’ mix, with (say) the Typhoon being the hi+.
Well the parameters of this competition changed considerably since this deal was first brought about in 1999 to buy 126 Mirages.So the talk of a junior pal for the SU-30 is just that-talk!!!