I can. I have. Not going to do it just for you. If you want to see it search for the damn thing. Not my job to deal with your laziness.

Whose definition? Would it be Lock Marts?

Really that kind of makes my point.

interesting stuff. I wonder if they really have fitted a new propulsion system.

Well she appears to be more ballested down and is no longer sitting nose high, which was clear in earlier pictures.

There is two things I am far more clear on now; firstly Varyag was in a far better material state then we realised when she was purchased from the Ukraine and secondly China is prepared to pay big bucks to bring it up to a useable status.

still not a serious threat to the falklands with this buy. The Saab buy is interesting though.

Indeed the AEW purchase would be interesting but the Mirage F1 won’t particularly rock the capability gap Argentina suffers. Then again the Mirage3 are at the end of their useful life and they need replacing. The F1 is a significant improvement over the 3 and it has a moderate all weather capability. There is also some interesting upgrade paths for the aircraft so its not a bad choice.

Then again I do feel Argentina should of put up a bit of a fight with Ecuador over those surplus Cheetah-C from South Africa. Actually for that matter how much are the Kfir CE?

When looking at the techologies available to detect and possibly engage stealth aircraft the clear choice is radar.

In the end its not an insurmountable technological challenge, with the proliferation of cheap high power processors and COTS technology the waters are rather muddied.

In respect of the much talked about F117 shoot down during the Kosovo conflict clearly poor mission planning was a major contributor to the aircraft loss and as far as I’m aware the missile battery used its IR sensors to pick up the aircraft flying along a known strike corridor. That doesn’t mean the F117 couldn’t be picked up by fairly old generation radar, it can but when taken within the larger picture of air operations the aircraft is still highly surviveable. Within the F117 community it was often mentioned that the stealthiest aspect of the aircraft was its mission planning system which took it around major threat sites. When operating in conjunction with jamming and SEAD/DEAD assets as well as the general numbers of strike aircraft fielded by NATO TAC air Serbian radar and CC4I would of been in chaos. Perfect for the F117 to slip though to targets, becoming predictable was the major fault. Certainly American stealth aircraft have been tracked in war operations most noteably during Gulf War 1 when British Type 42 picked them up with there L Band 1022 search radar a fair distance out.

Back to my earlier point technology always gets cheaper, feeding data from radar into powerful computer systems with good signal analysis capability is the first step in closing the stealth gap. Engagment is another issue of course but certainly the latest generation of warships like Type 45 with their advanced radar and processing capabilities on a large platform with an active missile and datalink capability can probably do the job and I would think land based systems could be developed in much the same way. As for fighters well certainly more difficult but again not insurmontable.

Stealth is fantastic but only part of a larger picture of platforms and systems.

Just for reference the Type 24 was a cheap small ASW frigate with a towed array proposed by Yarrow and the Type 25 would of been similar to the Type 22 but cheaper.

Serbian AF has started looking in to possibility of purchasing new fighter aircrafts.
According to Air Force Chief the have approached manufacturers of F-16 , F-18 , MiG-29 , Typhoon , Rafale , Gripen and Sukhoi ( article does not specify type)

http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/tema-dana/Srbija-bira-borbene-avione.sr.html

Well thats pretty much everybody then!

Looking at the list:

F16, very good choice but politics plays against it. Probably unaffordable as well.

F/A18, probably too much of an aircraft for their needs and again politics plays against it. Probably unaffordable as well.

Mig29, highly attractive due to prior experience and they can probably get them for a favourable cost. On the other hand the still relatively short overhaul periods and the attraction of the bigger Sukhoi plays against it.

Typhoon, too expensive and like the Super Hornet too much aircraft.

Rafale, too expensive also like the Super Hornet and Eurofighter too much aircraft.

Gripen, excellent affordable choice and there are plenty of low mileage examples sitting in Sweden.

Sukhoi Su27/30, certainly attractive with lots of capability for the price but the operational cost of a large twin engine fighter is probably outside the defence budget.

In conclusion I think they would rank the top three for purchase as:

1)Mig29 variant. (albeit I think they Gripen is a better more affordable to operate choice).
2)Gripen
3)Sukhoi Su27/30 variant. (I think it would be too costly to operate but its more of a contender then the other Euro canards or the US types).

The other choices are frankly either beyond their means or too expensive to operate.

I would suggest its a rather sneaky move to keep the UK in the program purchasing the aircraft, they know full well that the UK is protective over wing production. DASA tried the same thing with a320 wing production if I remember correctly.

So they suggest that they can helpfully take over wing production if the UK doesn’t want the aircraft and then watch the sh*t storm in the UK as the press and politicians all scrabble to say how production in Bristol must be protected!