Don’t think its a gigantic loss. Also, to be expected. You violate other nations airspace with a spy tool, expect losses. Iran has no base to profit from this, Russia on the other hand? China? Depends what degree the UAV survived, could be useful for radar testing purposes. If Iran was smart, they could trade the remains for several extra Tors, or radar batteries.

What are you going on about? I don’t see anyone claiming that every Flanker airshow maneuver is a 100% valid combat tactic that will be regularly employed by operators. It does however show general levels of agility and control that the aircraft possess, and dismissing them as useless airshow stunts is silly to say the least.

http://video.mail.ru/list/victor_bva/_myvideo/12.html

The recent BrahMos test.

How many Su27 or Mig29 operators use TVC? Not very many.

Nic

Actually, quite a few. Ever since TVC has been available on the Flanker, Algeria, India, Malaysia, and Russia have opted for it on the Su-30, and ofc the TVC on Russian Su-35s. In recent years, if anything, TVC Su-30MKI exports have been larger than non TVC Su-30MK.

MiG-29 TVC is only available on MiG-29M family derivatives, and that has only recently begun production. For 99% of MiG-29 users, the TVC was not available when they bought, nor are their airframes capable of using it.

SU 27 and F22 are very big fighters and although agile for their size they need TVC to try to catch up with smaller more compact airframes.

Besides I don’t think that a SU 27 with TVC is that maneuverable : it will wash up all its energy and will become a sitting duck if don’t manage its trick. an HMS is much more cost effective/efficient than going for TVC with all the associated trouble (maintenance, costs, risk of failure…). Some pilots have talked about the su-30mki (USAF, french air force and RAF?) and it is not the killing machine it was supposed to be in a dogfight as many thought.

Different for the F22 as it was the only aircraft able to match the rafale capability in a dogfight (ATLC).

These claims of Rafale being unmatched in a dogfight by all but F-22…reminds me of the same kind of talk from Typhoon guys, Su-30 guys, on and on. Doesn’t hold much water for me.

A Su-27 with TCV not being that maneuverable. Ha!
Justifications for why the Rafale doesn’t have TVC, are only a product of it not having TVC. If it did, you guys would be of the completely opposite opinion.

SM2 being the heavy Irbis modernization? Never flew.

http://paralay.com/ka52/ka52%20%28229%29.jpg
Eyes of Ka-52.

Somewhat like MiG-29K for the Russian Navy after the Indians ordered it, no?

I don’t mean the ordering after someone else committed- the small batch of 10 is what I found curious.