Defense Industry Daily quotes Al Sabaah as saying Iraq will buy 18 Mirage F.1s from France as a gap filler:

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Iraq-Seeks-F-16-Fighters-05057/#more-5057

http://www.alsabaah.com/paper.php?source=akbar&mlf=interpage&sid=93943

The Mirage F1s were left in France for servicing during the 1990s, and apparently remained there due to arms embargoes imposed after Operation Desert Storm.

Does anyone know about these Mirage F.1s “left in France?”

It’s a Su-30MKK, little to no equipment of Chinese origin has been observed on those. I agree that it is hard to tell what we’re looking at though, could be anything really.

Looks to be a SAPSAN-E under the right engine, with an APK-9 Tekon data-link pod for Kh-59 series (AS-13 or AS-18) missiles under the left engine.

http://cnair.top81.cn/q-5_jh-7_h-6.htm

All this talk about leaving allies high and dry…. Majorities of the populations of Poland and Czech didn’t want the system to begin with. And IIRC the politicians who inked the deals with Bush have been voted out of office as well. When I read about all the whining about the cancellation of the GBI plan, I noticed most was either from former Polish and Czech officials, or from US think tanks of the defense industry PR type.

The gains of canceling the system and moving to something less provocative and more flexible outweigh the benefits of two fixed installations.

Page 224 says it was a Mig 23BN Flogger F. The engine was a Turmansky R-29-300 (R-29A). The pilot killed was Lieutenant General Robert “Bobby” Bond.

When the author writes of the R-29 you can just feel his awe, yet total dislike for that engine…and for the Mig 23 in general. While incredibly powerful, he writes that it ran extremely hot and that Turmansky went to weird lengths to cool it (like drilling air cooling passages in the turbine blades) because they either didn’t have the expensive coatings and metals available to the West or just didn’t want to invest in them as the engines were viewed as disposable.

It’s interesting that Davies said all the Russian planes went faster than their published speed. I was always a doubter of Mig 25 speed claims. After all, look at a Mig 25 vs an SR-71. The Mig looks like an overly square, well…Mig. The SR-71 looks like it was designed by Star Fleet Command and Capt Kirk flew it. Maybe I’m a bit more of a believer now. After all the Starship Enterprise looks like a Frisbee with some chopsticks stuck in it.

I’m rereading the book. I’m starting to pick up more detail but Mr. Davies, if you’re reading this…I like your book. Maybe by going through it again it’ll flow a little better for me.

I’d still like to see a Mig 21 with a J-79 in it.

I refer you to figure 3 down the page:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/aurora.htm

It somewhat resembles the Tu-22M, A-5, MiG-25, MiG-23, etc. in aspects of its configuration. Does anyone know the speed the design was supposed to be able to operate at? Or any other general details?

Agreed aircraft fuel systems are designed for pressure and not vacuum. It is for this reason that a fuelling operative has to be very careful when doing a full defuel (say prior to maintenance) as serious damage along the lines of what djcross suggests can occur if procedure is not followed.

I can’t think of a single vehicle of any kind that sucks its own fuel supply.

Don’t worry, DARPA has got it covered:

http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/2009/01/

It seems as though Taiwan isn’t planning to partner with Russia to build the fighter, like India and Russia are with the PAK-FA MKI.

Rather, Russian expertise was hired just to help the Taiwanese effort, much like Israeli and Russian expertise was apparently lent to J-10 development.

As far as we know, a deal consisting of only design help could be done. If Taiwan actually builds the aircraft, China would be irritated to see Russian handywork in the design, but it’s not as if the plane is being built in Russia.

http://paralay.com/pakfamig.html

The Article by Kaleem Omar was dated: Monday ,June 08, 2009

Mr Kaleem Omar has done a ‘ Rip Van Winkle’ on all of us.

The original Article must have been written some 8 to 9 years ago!

Wecome back to the REAL Present time: June 2009 Mr Kaleem Omar ( a.k.a. Rip Van Winkle ).

P.S. I think the latest JH7A, JH7B etc….. are all equipped with the
indigenous Chinese engines of the latest WS series.
Will someone more knowledgeable please confirm this.
Thanks – and best regards.

JH-7B? Specs? Pics? Is this the ECM version?

How many are in service?

Also, many sources say that in the 2nd picture Paralay posted (of a MiG-31M?), the two center missiles are R-33S with some fins removed.

I can see that they have some fins, but according to the above statement they have some fins removed so that’s why I’m confused.

Either way, I don’t think it applies to the BM because unless anyone has a picture to prove otherwise, it would seem that the standard load of four AAM’s under the fuselage still applies, with the obvious difference being that the R-37 is now an option for the upgraded variant.

If I had to guess I would say the fins just weren’t installed for the display.