F-16
Country: United States
Strengths: An all-round aircraft with a great combat record, but against weak opponents
Weaknesses: 30-yr-old design. Easily outgunned by Su-30, Su-35 in mock combat and simulation

JAS 39 Gripen
Country: Sweden
Strengths: Highly-capable, true multi-role combat aircraft
Weaknesses: Never really tested in battle. Besides, what can Sweden offer in return?

take on the massed array of US and allied fighter-bombers. Often the US-led air attacks would come in formations of 1,000 aircraft. Only a suicidal Iraqi pilot would have dared to take them on. And clearly there weren't too many of them. In fact, in the early days of the first Gulf war, the entire Iraqi Air Force flew en masse to Iran so that its MiGs wouldn't be shot up on the ground.

So while Lockheed ads in US defence journals touting the F-16's

They have offered to sell us the F-16 and F/A-18 and we have to see if they meet our needs. Everything will be evaluated by a committee of experts from the IAF Pranab Mukerjee Defence Minister

50 vs 0 record can be dismissed easily, what isn't so easy is answering the question: Is fighter X better than fighter Y? This is the kind of question that gets discussed all the time, but doesn't really have an answer.

First, best for what? Every fighter is designed with a particular set of requirements in mind. “Fighter” is a general term that covers a multitude of missions. The MiG-29 is an excellent interceptor but no air force would send it deep into enemy territory on bombing runs.

most important one. Put two aircraft of similar (or even somewhat different) capabilities up against each other, and the most important factor is the relative skills of the two pilots. It's widely believed that superior pilot training was the main reason why in the Korean War American pilots flying F-86 Sabers consistently gained air superiority over technically superior Russian MiG-15s flown by hastily called up North Korean conscripts.

Most modern generation fighters

F-16 is one of the aircraft we are looking at along with three other aircraft of similar capabilities. We are considering their multi-role combat capabilities and air superiority S.P. Tyagi Air Chief Marshal

are fairly similar in performance. If any two modern fighters came up against each other in a dogfight, pilot skill would certainly be the main deciding factor. In an air exercise conducted near Gwalior in 2004, MiG-21s and Mirage-2005s of the Indian Air Force, reportedly bested of the US F-15 Eagles, one of the leading fighter-bombers of the US Air Force.