Whats to be proud off? I weak nation bombed and sanctioned, too some extent in violation of the UN resolution implement on Libya. No one has thought the various rebel groups in Libya do not have one overall command as like Vietnamese Communist did.

I wont be suprised that US and Nato will beg nations like Pakistan and offer them “free” money to send in peacekeepers to stabilise nation. BTW Pakistan has ranked amongst the top 2 peacekeeping nations by troop numbers for many years.

Hope Iran learns the Libyan lesson and disarm:rolleyes:

I was talking about personel from the likes of the RAF & other air forces that I was praising, not the likes of dim-witted politicians etc. Do read a little closer, you might understand something every now and again. :rolleyes:

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Mig-29, its certainly my favourite Soviet/Russian fighter of which I had many of wishful thinkings that the RAF would purchase a few in the 80s and 90s, talk about living in a dream world. I’ve always thought to have some kind of cheeky character, much like the ‘come and have a go if you think you’re ‘ard enough!’ EE/BAC Lightning…But not like Russia’s current fighter, of which although a fine aircraft I’m sure it’ll be…It lacks a lot of character IMO.

But meh, back to the real world. 🙂

The F/A-18, well, personally I consider it to be an ‘okay’ aircraft, it does the job it was designed for very well…However, its not an aircraft I would always bank on for a good few number of reasons. Its far from the greatest in terms of performance even with these so-called “up-graded” engines thats knocking about somewhere, yes it might look good performing high AoA with a shed load of AMRAAMs onboard at airshows, but, stick it up there at high altitude and at high speeds & it’d be in a world of hurt. Aerodynamically, its probably that of a brick and it’s airframe is far from the most advance.

Of course, its AESA radar, avionics, weapons, defence systems etc are top-notch, but to be honest, India were never ever going to have full access to them. Put simple, the Americans shot themselves in the foot in this area with both the F/A-18 and F-16. The saying ‘Flogging a dead horse’ springs to mind.

I have to strongly disagree with; “very good development potential for future”. Of course, Boeing came up with this “Silent F/A-18” or whatever it was called for India with these so-called “Stealth pods”, CFTs etc. Looks fine on paper & all but theres no getting away from the fact that its just an F/A-18 which has got very little, if any, upgrade potential left in its life, same can be said for the F-16 and F-15.

It must not be forgotten that the IAF are going to be operating the MMRCA for 40+ years and it makes a lot of sense of why the Indians shortlisted the two newer types that have the potential to be developed to be a better aircraft than one is now or what even is on the drawing board, and also one that the Indian aerospace industry will have the chance to be a part of.

About the reports of the MMRCA competition Air Forces Montly mentioned that I stated a few days ago, theres a couple more things worth mentioning. I didn’t purchase it, theres not much more mentioned about this topic and other military aviation news & reports etc, so not really worth buying…Not when I read half of it in WHSmiths anyway… 😀 (They really ought to stop people reading mags in store if they want to sell them.)

Another interesting piece I came across in the MMRCA report; was that the Typhoon was the only aircraft out of of all the contenders to show that it can take-off, perform a display, land while operating with only one engine and with 3x drop tanks & a full A/A weapons fit – which would be 8x A/A missiles (i.e. 4x ASRAAM/IRS-T, 4x AMRAAM). This operation was performed at Leh Air Base.

Also, despite India wanting an AESA radar fitted to the MMRCA, they were very impressed with the CAPTOR, according to reports from Air Forces Monthly.

it was no such thing. boeing would have received C-17 orders irrespective of MRCA outcome. this whole damage control/consolation thing is complete BS.

what else was there in the market except the C-17 ? nothing. the C-17 order would likely go up to 24 btw.

Like I mentioned a few days ago. When The F414 was selected for the Tejas, a hell of a lot people, Scooter & Co, were adament the F/A-18 was going to win the MMRCA competition – it was a done & dusted deal comfortable placed in their pockets and nothing could go wrong now…Then, well, the rest is history.

But its rather funny how a few weeks ago, Indian officials said during a article posted on another thread: ‘Why? By time these upgrades are finished the airframes will be nearing the end of their service life’…(Something along those lines anyway) And it must be said, they do have a point. Then all of a sudden they seem to be all for it…

And that ground is at 0 ft on a standard day (20 °C / 68 °F).
Hot and high, that’s a different story. Less air means less thrust, that’s that simple.

It suggests that those heavy configuration were less than the thrust of the engines at high altitude (and hot weather).

On the ground and at 0kts, Typhoon has 18tons of thrust. Its MTOW is more than 18 tons. At HA (and hot weather), the thrust is less (much less). What’s the heavy configuration then ?

As I said, I didn’t read all article to gain more information, if I’ll have time I’ll go out and buy the mag tomorrow.

In terms of high altitude and in hot weather wheres less air – its no surprise the Typhoon can perform very well in these conditions, way better than many other aircraft including the Rafale.

Concerning the weapons, I believe it was a considerable amount that was carried during those trials, AMRAAM, ASRAAM, 1000lb LGBs, drop tanks etc, I’ll get the details. Also, reports said the Typhoon performed very well during take-off and landing trials at altitude too, with drop tanks (3x?) and also with weapons onboard too IIRC.

BVR capabilities were also mentioned too.

and they said mig engines were inadequate :rolleyes:

Whom are ‘they’?

I’ve always thought Russian engines of being ruddy powerful, if a bit ‘smokey’, but powerful neverless.

There was also something mentioned about the Rafale’s M88s not being up to much when tested during the trials – i.e. high up and in hot conditions. I believe it’s BVR capabilities were in question also, but not 100% sure, need to go out & purchase the mag at some point for further details.

Theres alot of things not operational on the Typhoon yet, AESA, Meteor, Storm Shadow, Brimstone, Paveway IV, various avionics – defence sub-systems etc although a lot of them if not all are in the process of being integrated. Unlike the likes of Saab with their Gripen, Eurofighter have given the dates to which they’ll be operational on the Typhoon that satisfies India, i.e. before they start to be delivered to India & before India start producing them themselves.

I would have thought the Russian side would have understood this and to be honest, Russia seemed to be half-ar$ed about taking part in this competition anyway, not bother turning up for the likes of Aero India 2011 for example.

I’ve followed Formula 1 ever since the early/mid 80’s when I was a little kid, from then on to weekend just gone in Hungary I’ve seen every single qualifying session and race & loved every moment of them, some have been great some have been heart breaking – the race weekend at Imola 94 for example – the great moments for me have been for the likes of Damon Hill in Japan 1994 with that brilliant drive and win and again in 1996 when he took the title & not to mention Murray’s words when Hill crossed the finishing line, those times of Jean Alesi’s on-board camera shots, whom of which had one of the most fantastic driving styles I thought, Nigel’s dominating year of 92, Alain Prost’s calm ways of winning…The list is endless of such amazing & life changing moments that has ever been witnessed…And who can forget Murray’s fun loving commentary, it was top notch and it was just the cherry on the cake all the times he messed up & talked a load of gibberish and of course, the ever witty dry sense of humour of Martin Brundle – these two were and are the true voices of Formula 1.

Then enter this weekend, such a shame, it was one of the most exciting F1 weekends of the 00s but it was just over-shadowed by this Sky business. As a committed F1 fan its the biggest dissapointment ever to hit this sport, personally its the first few nails in the coffin to come at once.

As much as I love F1 I won’t be paying £30 a race on top of my bill, not a chance in hell, its a bl**dy disgrace! And who the hell else is going to pay that much of which as it makes more difference the best part of £300 or so a year, not very many if you read around on so many news pages & forums. Basically, F1 is going to flop big time on Sky and I’ll be quite surprised if it makes it into the 2nd year.

All this “news” about the BBC not being able to afford Formula 1 is, sorry but, a load of sh*te, frankly!!! And I don’t buy into that nonsense! F1 costs somewhere in the region of £40-45 million per year where as BBC Three costs over £100 million per year to run, according to recent reports. Now, BBC Three is a channel that not that many view, the programmes are lame – bar one or two, but whoopy-doo, and they have the common cheek to repeat the same rubbish all too quite frikin often…a lot of the time on the same night and what I’ve heard, the viewing figures for BBC Three aren’t that high where as an F1 race (excluding qualifying and the practice sessions) gets somewhere in the region of 6 million viewers – ‘per race!’ And in the UK alone!

So which one would you get shot of? I know what I would put a bullet in. And theres many other programmes the BBC shows that could, or really should, get the chop & even cut down the number of days some are shown.

Moving F1 to Sky and showing only half of the races on the BBC is just a bad idea – ironically just like Bernie the Bolt more or less said not so long ago…Hmmm…The viewing figures will not only dramatically drop in the UK, but in just about every other English speaking country in the world as BBC’s live F1 coverage is streamed throughout it.

So, nice one Bernie, you’ve finally got your wish to destroy F1, then again, he needs to bail the Murdochs out of this hacking scandal…(Ooops I said that out loud just then, didn’t I.)

Anyway, as of the end of whats been a fantastic season, its bye-bye F1…