If India selects F-18 Super Hornet

If India selects an American fighter which should it be: F-18 E/F [Super Hornet/Rhino] or F-16 IN [Super Viper] ?

The general public opinion on Rhino is very bad in the U.S because of its aerobatic cripples. In case India selects F-18 and they come face to face with Pakistan's F-16s; what would happen?

Ten F-16s take off from Karachi to attack targets in Mumbai. Four Rhinos are on patrol flying over Gujarat and they detect the F-16s first because of their superior Radars. Rhinos call for back up and decide to engage the the Pakistani squadron. Each Rhino has four meteors and six AIM-9xs. Since the F-16s were to attack Mumbai six of them have only air to ground munitions and four F-16s had the same missiles as the Rhinos.

The F-18s with their data links decide to act in coherence. Each Rhino fires two meteors at the incoming Squadron of F-16s. Meteor is very advanced missile and F-16s smaller RADAR does not detect them until too late. Of eight missiles fired four hit the targets. The other F-16s being agile and armed with Sidewinders have a close escape . One F-16 meant for air superiority and three meant to attack ground level targets have been lost.

Pakistani Pilots decide not to turn back and get extra aware.They scan the skies effectively using their datalinks and Radars.They spot the Rhinos as the distance has reduced greatly.The Pakistani F-16s fire eight meteors in all two at each rhino.

The Rhino much closer now uses its RADAR to scan the F-16s and sorts out the three F-16s meant for air superiority. They fire two meteors each at the three F-16s. The Pakistani Meteors close in on the Rhinos. The Rhinos better sensors pick up the missiles and initiates countermeasures. But two Rhinos go down as meteors are pretty hard to jam.

The Indian missiles close in on the F-16s. They try to escape but two meteors per an F-16 proves too much. All the three F-16s go down. the remaining F-16s decide to turn back as they have only two Sidewinders each to defend themselves.

Final Score:

F-18 E/F [Super Hornet/Rhino]: 7

F-16 IN [Super Viper]: 2

Conclusions:

F-18 has better sensors than F-16 and hence can pick up targets at a much longer range.

F-18 has better jammers and countermeasures and hence better chance to survive a missile attack.

F-18 has better RCS and hence is harder to detect than F-16s.