mattThe A400M (problems with it) is the very reason i think that the Mi 26 has a chance of being in service in france and germany
mattLCA isnt dead in the water, it is a getting obsolete but not completely dead. India needs the mud movers and thats what it will do.
mattAny one here working within a company that manufactures spy sattelites for the specific purpose of gathering radar signatures?
no?
mattDo any of you guys know how to cook the Scrumptious Cabbage filled pastry?
And those tastey long pickels you get.. hmm where do that sell them some place called yolki polki…
mattWhy not China?
mattInteresting news
____________________________________________
NATO steps up monitoring of Russia
By Thomas Harding and David Blair
Last Updated: 3:12am BST 24/08/2007
NATO vessels are closely monitoring the sea trials of Russia’s latest submarine, following Moscow’s increasingly provocative tests of Western airspace.
A submarine bearing the St Andrew naval flag of Russia
In the latest twist to worsening East-West relations, Nato submarines and surface ships, which may include Royal Navy vessels, are trying to gather information on the new Amur class boat being tested in the Baltic.
The greater-than-normal scrutiny is, in part, a response to Russia’s decision to resume long-range bomber flights close to Nato airspace which has revived memories of Cold War confrontation between the two blocs.
Twice this summer, Russian Tu-95 nuclear bombers have been spotted heading towards British airspace off Scotland, prompting the RAF to send intercepting aircraft to warn them off.
On another occasion, Russian planes came within striking distance of the US Pacific airbase of Guam.
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Yesterday, Russian airforce spokesman Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky insisted there was no provocative intent.
“Our pilots never violate foreign airspace and their actions have no aggression against other countries,” he said.
“The long-range aircraft [off Scotland] were on a scheduled mission over international waters. We have made prior announcements of all flights. There is no sabre-rattling involved.”
The Amur class submarine being studied by Nato can test the alliance’s ability to defend territorial waters in much the same way that bomber flights can test its ability to defend airspace.
The vessel is an extremely stealthy model, capable of striking surface targets with torpedoes or missiles.
Apart from the threat it poses as part of the Russian navy, Moscow is believed to have won contracts to export it to other states such as Venezuela, which is challenging the United States’ influence in Latin America.
mattLooks very much like the Anjian, is this a Russia-China collabaration along the lines of BrahMos?
mattI wonder if this posturing is more to do with the claims of the north pole teritories
matti see your point joey…
mattMatt the report is from Ravi Sharma as usual lacks proper facts like his previous reports and ofcourse the use of “informed sources” the typical syndrome.
The same writer was also the one who wrote off the MMR as a failure only to have details released later that the A2G mode was to be finalized. He also claimed that there were such huge losses in power transfer that range was reduced on the LCA. Turned out that it was the HACK, and the LCA in contrast has a fully allotted rack for the electronics to be colocated with the RF transmitters. He also wrote that the LCA sufferred from poor estate management, it turned out that it was an issue with the first TDs because of all the Flight test instrumentation stuffed into the bird. Fool also wrote that anything less than an AESA is obsolete, this when the MKI has a PESA, the Mirage and MiG-29 upgrades are getting MSA.
The FrontierIndia article is a much better written one who normally has insider sources as far as I’m concerned of, but whatever is the case the IN20 with increased thrust will solve things hopefully and the flat rated kaveri is always there.
Hi Joey, the article is posted to capture the news, you will notice i did not put my own opinion on this.
Plus whoever this guy is, he lives in a free and democratic country and for that simple reason right or wrong his opinion cannot/shouldnot be censored.
For me until FOC it doesnt really matter they just have to ensure that its solved before then.
mattLight Combat Aircraft: questions over installed thrust
Ravi Sharma
Issues to the fore after two prototype vehicles are put through 24 flights at Arakkonam
— File Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash
NEW issues: Light Combat Aircraft Tejas over the Yelahanka Air Station in Bangalore.
Bangalore: Sea-level flights of Tejas, the indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA), have thrown up questions relating to its installed thrust. If these are not resolved, it is possible that India’s fourth generation fighter aircraft programme, launched in 1983, could get further delayed.
Prototype vehicles PV2 and PV3 were put through 24 flights over two weeks at INS Rajali at Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu recently. Being at sea level Arakkonam offered a dramatically different environment from that of Bangalore, which is 3,018 feet above sea level. It was in Bangalore that all the LCA flying was until then done. With the longest runway of its kind in India, INS Rajali enabled Tejas to undertake extensive low-level flying, something that is not possible in Bangalore.
The sea-level tests, basically meant to test the reliability of Tejas’ systems in dense (hot and humid) atmospheric conditions and its low-level flight characteristics, were “largely successful.” But it also became clear that the performance at sea level did not meet some key points in its flight envelope: notably in terms of maximum speed and take-off. Here the aircraft was not able to meet its targeted maximum speed of Mach 1.05, although it had been touching Mach 1.6 at higher altitudes.
Informed sources attribute this to insufficient installed thrust from the power plant after its integration with the air frame. Engineers working with the programme say modifications including to the aircraft’s air intakes will have to be made or a new engine installed. Both solutions will be time-consuming.
Informed sources say a solution would necessarily have to be found since the aircraft is not likely to clear (low-level) final operation clearance (FOC) with the present installed thrust. It is unlikely that the end-user, the Indian Air Force, which in 2006 placed an order for 20 of the aircraft, be happy to induct an under-powered machine.
The LCA now uses the General Electric (GE) designed and manufactured F 404 engine, which generates a static thrust of 80.5 kN (kiloNewton). But installed thrust being dependent on the mating of the engine with the air frame, the amount of air that flows into the engine (air intake), aero dynamism, cowling, wings, and so on, it can be lower than the static thrust. Informed sources say this is what has happened in the case of the Tejas. They say the installed thrust losses are “on account of issues with the air intake design and mating of the engine with the airframe.”
The LCA programme’s limited series production and the 20 aircraft the IAF has ordered will fly with specially modified GE 404 IN20 engines. But informed sources say that though these engines have Full Authority Digital Engine Control, longer life and hot-end components, they may not be able to generate at sea level the needed installed thrust. A new, more powerful engine such as the GE 414 (which powers the F-16 Super Hornet), whose core is the same as the GE 404 but is heavier or a similar engine, may have to be tried.
The genesis of the current issues relating to the engine can be traced to the non-availability of the Kaveri engine that was expected to fly the Tejas, but which is still nowhere in sight. The non-availability of the Kaveri has meant that the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), which is designing the LCA, is forced to look elsewhere for an alternative.
The ADA, though, is not too perturbed with the lack of installed thrust at low levels. Says P.S. Subramanyam, its Programme Director (Combat Aircraft): “The programme is on the fast track. We are planning to fit drop tanks and mid port bombs very shortly. Missile firing is also being planned. The present engines (F 404) will see me through IOC and FOC.”
The LCA, which has so far undertaken 725 flights, is scheduled to get initial operational clearance in late-2010 and FOC in 2011-12.
mattSome of their welding technology was quite progressive, I can recall seeing a report on television concerning a welding technique carried out in a gas filled chamber with the welders dressed in full respiratory system (presumably to provide an oxygen free enviroment for the welding process). But on the whole most of their production plants were pretty labour intensive with a lot less automation employed.
I’m talking about Soviet times by the way.
yup rolls who own cambridge or oxford actually paid some one a lot of money to research one of those techniques in the 90s
In fact the most expensive and difficult part about PAK FA may not be it’s design and development, but in its production. With the MiG-29 and Su-27 series of aircraft, the Russians are able to make use of tooling, jigs, dies etc, which were produced and paid for in Soviet times, 20/30 years ago. But producing the new stealth technology ‘PAK FA’ will require almost entirely new factories with specially developed production equipment.
Re-tooling a factory doesn’t come cheap and it would be interesting to find out how much it cost to do so for Lockheed Martin with the F-22.Also, the average age of a Russian aircraft factory specialist is somewere around his late fifties. They will have to find new fresh blood in the intervening years to build PAK FA. But these youngsters are not going to accept the pittance of a salary that the present workforce is ready to work for.
Therefore, I don’t think that the United Aircraft Corporation ‘UAC’ will be able to sell PAK FA at the same discount prices abroad that they could sell the Su-30, for example – presuming that UAC will be allowed to sell PAK FA abroad.
But I’m not a production/industrial engineer, so maybe someone could enlighten me on the practical realities of putting a whole new aircraft type into production?:)
The tooling will be expensive and so would the R&D if they choose to go down the route of exotic materials from the get go. However this cost would be incured if they went the route of stealth or not.
I wouldnt be that worried that the Russians “may not” have young blood they engineers will be able to cope, well it wont slow down the initial flight anyway.
mattThe Russians – as Otaku said above- lagged in Microprocessing during the Cold War. There was one more lag, in production methods and equipment.
If we are talking about the Cold war era, when the Soviet Union still existed then I have to challange the second claim that they lacked manufacturing technology. They were just as Advanced in some areas as the rest of the world.
mattJapan to build stealth jet in 5 years–report
Agence France-Presse
Last updated 01:13pm (Mla time) 08/11/2007
TOKYO — Japan’s defense ministry has decided to build a stealth fighter and wants a first test flight within five years, a news report said.
The move could concern Washington as Japan is a major customer of US defense equipment, the Tokyo Shimbun said.
Japan is moving ahead because the US military has been reluctant to sell Japan F-22 Raptors, the latest US Air Force jets built to evade radar detection at supersonic speeds.
Japan has been officially pacifist since its defeat in World War II but has one of the world’s largest defense budgets and has gradually been expanding its military role.
Previous media reports have said the ministry will include funds to develop the manned prototype in its budgetary request in 2008.
US law prohibits export of Raptors. But the United States flew Raptors to Japan earlier this year on their first foreign flight, showing its commitment to the two countries’ security alliance amid tensions with North Korea.
A defense ministry official has previously said Japan was looking at six models of aircraft including the Raptor, the Eurofighter, designed by a European consortium, and the F-35, built by the United States and Britain.
The Japanese government has not supported development of a domestic fighter aircraft since the F-1 support fighter jet in the 1970s.
F-15 fighter jets, which form the core of Japan’s fighter force, are being manufactured here under a license agreement with the United States.
mattIts a special branch of history from where he gets his information, its called make believe land.
Indeed, so why is China considered a threat when it is doing exactly what others are already when they are not? The UK announces two brand new carriers and no-one bats an eye lash. Yet rumors of the Chinese fixing up a decade old Soviet hulk is seen by some as evidence of an expansionist shift in Chinese policy, yet it was the UK who invaded another sovereign nation less then 5 years ago.
Purely because the UK isnt claiming any territory (apart from the malvinas whos population actually have voted to stay in the UK) or having border disputes with most of its neighbours. China is and does.
I also believe a lot of posters over estimate the worlds dependence on China, I for one would not mind if China stoped trading and if industry came back to the UK.
Paying 10 pounds more for a pair of shoes isnt going to hurt.
I am sure the South Africans, Brazilians and Russians would not mind a trade embargo.
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