Which, is not good for Russia and Sukhoi. As India is purchasing more and more from the West and China is building its own!:eek:

India recently ordered more Su-30MKIs, is committed to the platform as the mainstay of the fleet for the next several decades (including support and modernization) and just signed the biggest aviation deal with India for the FOLLOW UP mainstay of the fleet, the PAK-FA. To quote a great man, Sukhoi is embedded in India “like an Alabama tick”. And you talk about it not going well. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Really, the lack of maturity is hurting the Typhoon in respect to the MMRCA Contest. Which, put’s it in a distance third in the race……(i.e. behind Super Hornet & Rafale)

Has there been ANY indication from the Indian side than the SH is number one, or even in the lead?

lol

Russian budget is being raised to far more than 50 billion in the 2010-2020 GOZ.

if the MiG-35 does not win the MMRCA chicken tender, will it no longer see further development?

Seems to me like its development has already gone quite far, and it is a fine aircraft as it is- and that is without India MMRCA money (though Indian MiG-29K contracts helped MiG out a lot, along with the other sales they have made in past ten years, and the supposed Russian gov bailout). MiG will be busy with 29K production (assuming the Russian state order comes through, which it seems it will) for next few years, they can wrap up MiG-35 development during that time if MMRCA is awarded to someone else. We have repeatedly heard Russia intends to order a batch of 20-30 MiG-35s, and that would make wrapping up development worth it by itself, but IMO it is a senseless order for Russia, might as well order more Su-35s.

What I am very curious about is the UOMZ contribution to the program, they were critical in a lot of the fancy systems on the plane (OLS-K, SOLO, SOAR), but all that stuff has been taken off, and UOMZ issues are no secret. Winning MMRCA would go along way towards finding a suitable replacement for those systems, or for finishing them, assuming MiG even takes UOMZ back on the program.

MiG situation is weird period, I remember hearing about them owning some bank 10-15 million dollars and that was causing issues, but they have an outstanding order book in the billions, how hard can it be to pay off that piddly amount ?!?

I agree 100%! people should not look at the Pak-fa and J-20 as a race, although it seems that some are tempted to do so when I mention J-20’s LO feature. the two cannot be in a race as China is flooding the program with money and the J-20 program has much security. Sukhoi on the other hand is like the river with Indian water, but it is up to India to supply the ganges with that flood.

That is inaccurate to put it lightly. PAK-FA has proceeded with zero Indian money so far, and would survive without any Indian capital.

EDIT: That is the last I am saying about the PAK-FA in this thread, but dear lord, stop the “flankerism” and “LO” nonsense.

Let`s just be fair and admit guys that Chinese proved that they certainly can do it at the same level as Russians maybe even better. It’s my two cent worth opinion that sometimes it happens that a student can carry on and take over just where the teacher leaves off.

But….until this mythical and supposedly superior plane, they haven’t been able to do it better, in really any of the critical aviation areas. This is why I have my doubts, and certainly why I reject notions of out-of-nowhere CHinese superiority.

here you go sexy
[/img]

Production F-22.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/F-22_Raptor_landing_at_Nellis_AFB_-_030529-F-2185F-001.jpg

uh oh, I see many panels without “zigzags”.