France was a superpower in many points of its history.

At least a continental one.

Maiden!!!! *Head bangs like a nutter!*

Led Zeppelin… I don’t trust people that don’t like Zeppelin. Stand out band of the ’60s. Sorry Beatles, Rolling Stones, I love you but… Zeppelin are the Mutt’s Nuts!

In my experience people who don’t like Zep usually do so for “I want to be unique and not like a universally loved bad” reasons…..which is pretty damn stupid IMO.

I have a special place in my heart for the Stones, Paint It Black at the end of Full Metal Jacket (credits I think lol) got me into rock in the first place!

Is Deep Purple still popular in the UK? They go somewhat unnoticed I think compared to the other hard rock acts of the 60s and 70s…some brilliant stuff though.

Kalibr has never had angular thrusters.

You are confusing Yakhont/Onyx/BrahMos with kalibr.

So, what is going on with this strange MiG-35 display @ MAKS:

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Are the MiG-29SMTs that were replaced by Su-30s at Kursk the same as those that were taken back from Algeria and put into VKS service? So the theory on Russian forums is that the 21 MiG-29s will not be old airframes that were never fully assembled and put into storage, but rather these 16 or 18 SMTs that will be possibly purchased?

Yes, those 34 MiG-29SMT/UBT at Kursk are the ex-Algerians. Some on Russian forums have speculated that with the gradual withdrawal of Fulcrum from combat units, they might be up for sale. I am not sure but personally I don’t think there are enough airframes left @ the factory in Lukhovitsy to complete the order, so they will need to find/cannibalize air-frames from somewhere else. Maybe some of the “vanilla” air-frames the VKS has retired over the past decade are in good condition.

The 16 other SMTs (and 2 UBTs) are from an unrelated order, built from unfinished airframes for the VKS just a few years ago (deliveries from 2016-2018 IIRC). They are basically brand new, so I don’t think there is any possibility of them being sold. They operate in a combat training unit anyways, you can tell them apart from the ex-Algerians by their camo, the more typical Russian green as opposed to the weird grey/angles of the Algerians:

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Keep in mind he is talking about the old half (or even more) “Ukrainian” R-77, which was never even accepted for service by the VVS, nor bought in any serious numbers.

Every missile that is popping up on VKS planes today should be the R-77-1 (I keep forgetting if that is actually the real designation).

There is a debate on many Russian forums if the R-27s (like on the Belorussian Su-30s and other new VKS birds) are modernized significantly or not, personally I have not seen any conclusive evidence.

Yes I am, old pseudo from long time ago and don’t wanna create a new account. Not posting here often as English is not my mother tongue 😉

I know -SMT from Kursk being replaced by brand new Su-30SM but it doesn’t mean (not saying it won’t happen, BTW) that these ones are leaving VKS for good. Anyway, they’re a few Vanilla MiG-29 still needing to be replaced in the VKS… -SMT can be a stopgap measure before a definitive leave.

21 almost/near completed frames still standing in Lukhovitsy is not so shocking: MiG-29 production was in full swing when USSR disappeared. When you see how big MiG factory is and the annual output they had, the amount of unfinished planes is not so surprising.

#My2Cent

Ah I see. I peruse your blog sometimes, your English is fine 🙂 .
I see you got a kick out of the “Su-57” is cancelled rage that was sweeping Western media sources too lol.

Yes, I agree, nothing is certain. Especially since even newer batch of 16(or is it 18) 9.19s were delivered just a few years back, and there is no talk of dumping them, so selling off barely decade old ex-Algerians would not achieve any fleet streamlining.

However IIRC ever since being replaced @ Kursk, the SMTs were grounded and awaiting overhaul, so theory is they are waiting on Indians to decide.

Sterne- you are not the same Red Samovor blog-owner, are you 🙂 ?

Re. SMT it is a bit of a mystery. There are photos from Lukhovitsy from earlier this decade, which showed many stored air-frames (non-M), but since then Myanmar bought 20 and VKS bought 18 of those air-frames.
I have a hard time believing there are 21 almost completed frames ready for upgrading. Probably some of them will be retired VKS MiG-29s that will be “zero-houred” anyways.

The theory that they will be VKS SMTs comes from the Kursk unit replacing its planes with Su-30SMs. It is unclear where the MiG’s will end up after.