FedaykinActually Tu-4 was exact copy of B-29, bolt by bolt. Stalin job to Tupoljev. Even admitted by Soviets.
Well actually no the Tu-4 was not a bolt for bolt copy of the B-29, very close certainly but not exactly the same. There are differences some more significant than one would consider. Regardless of Stalin’s orders many compromises had to be made and it is more accurate to say the Tu-4 is a reversed engineered B-29. There were absurdities in that process and they were forced to unnecessarily and slavishly copy systems that had better alternatives nevertheless there a changes from the engines, guns, radios, IFF and even the aircraft skin plus the conversion to metric.
The B-29 does have an ongoing influence to this day on Russian bomber design most notably the Tu-95 that has in effect the same fuselage dimensions width wise.
FedaykinDoes anyone know the actual delivery schedule for the raf and fleet air arm lightning 2 f35b? Also is the basing set for raf marham or will the navy after training settle to a navy airbase.
The F-35B will operate from Marham in a joint pool of aircraft, it makes no sense for the RN to duplicate support facilities. The two RAF and two RN squadrons will have a mix of RN/RAF personnel. RAF Marham will also curiously have an RN MET office.
With HMS queen Elizabeth and HMS prince of wales what are the delivery and in service dates. I heard the first deployment will be 2021 with the US marines deploying aboard with the Royal Navy. I also wonder if it will just be with f35b or some helicopters and perhaps some marines or will the Royal Marines deploy aboard or just a pure aircraft carrier. How much of the training will be in the USA.
Testing will start later this year after sea trials with Helicopters then in 2018 there will be F-35B trials off the cost of the US. 2021 is technically the FOC but that is a rather fluid concept. A separate agreement has been signed with the USMC and they will be regular visitors on the QE class, it is a good deal for them and us as it allows us to speed up the ship aircraft integration whilst they get access to another large deck. The RN is also VERY KEEN for the USMC to bring some of the MV-22 with them especially if it includes the new Air to Air refuelling system they are currently testing.I hope the Royal Navy really get a good chance to train with the carrier before deployment. Perhaps dual operating with US NAVY assault ship or perhaps Italian Cavour carrier or French Charles de-Gaulle carrier to get the skills perfected. I don’t know the ins and outs of operations for each nation to know how similar they are.
This has already been happening for a number of years with RN personnel deployed to the USN and French Navy. Recently RN ASaC 7 were deployed to France to refresh themselves in fighter control techniques.
Any news on what the carrier escort will normally be? Will the type 45 or type 26 have its engines corrected and be starting to enter service.
The Escort will by Type 45, Type 23, Type 26, Astute class and possibly Type 31 if it has the pant to keep up with the carrier. The size of the escort will depend on the situation and in Peacetime will be more dictated by fleet availability. If we are not at war there is no point tying up lots of Destroyers, Frigates and Hunter Killers.
I would still like to see a sea ceptor missile set on the carrier. I would say it’s a must for an 4+ cell that can be quad packed. I would obviously prefer a group of cells larger than 4 and the should be the larger quad packed cell for future needs.
Using invincible class as an experience from there sea dart is not that relevant due to different threats, escort levels etc between then and now. Was the sea dart any use to the carrier? This is purely about my personal knowledge.Many would like that but it would entail more money being spent and duplicates a capability the Escorts already have. Not ideal but the defence budget is finite. Self defence missiles is a nice to have luxury but with other things also making a call on the defence budget not essential. Sea Dart was more an inconvenience than a benefit, Sea Wolf would have been a far better choice and was going to be fitted in a quad cell format on the Invincible class until the idea was dropped in favour Phalanx, Goalkeeper and softkill solutions.
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FedaykinOnce he is sworn in he is certainly going to get a cold hard shock about Political reality and how little leeway he really has. Global Realpolitik is going to be a rather rude surprise for him.
My gut feeling is he never expected to win the nomination let alone the Presidency, his plan was to lose and then pump out books and TV programs talking about how the presidency was stolen from him to increase his profile even further! That the Democrat Party and the DNC allowed themselves into being steam rolled into selecting a highly unpopular and distrusted candidate who had already failed to get the nomination in 2008 against a Junior Senator when even then it was billed as a certainty she would win beggars belief! Hillary and her supporters scared off any realistic candidate from even daring to stand against her in 2016 for the nomination leaving it to an elderly lefty Bernie who himself ran her a very close race and himself was only beaten by the Liberal application of dirty tricks. A proper Democrat Primary with decent candidates leading to a reasonable nominee and I think Trump would have lost.
It is ironic how accurate a recent South Park episode was on the matter!
FedaykinI disagree, it would be highly disruptive, push up program costs and risk death spiral. Cutting 8% off the program is a crazy idea at this point…then again Trump is a bit of a wild card.
Look Trump is already into face saving, it is all talk and bluster.
FedaykinIt would be sensible to cut the C entirely & order a few B & more SH, in order to free more budget to accelerate the 6th gen fighter development to be shared with USAF to replace F22.
Nic
Cutting C entirely would be a VERY BAD IDEA, it would have the effect of driving up costs even further and risk death spiral for the program.
All three variants have significant commonality, enough so that deleting one of the variants will drive up unit cost for the program as a whole. It would also severely hamper USN plans, with the CATOBAR UCAV all but killed off F-35C is the only late gen stealth type available to them currently.
FedaykinTrump again mentioned F18 and F35 in same sentence. There will be a lot of pressure on F35 programme to cut down costs or make it more expensive for exports. That is assuming Trump does not discover F35 compromised by Chinese or F35 programme funding his opponenets in congress or just plain recession like F22. there is a lot of headwinds for F35.
He did indeed mention F18 and F35 in the same sentence but beyond a platitude about getting a great deal he didn’t say anything else.
He has little room to manoeuvre on this, cancelling F-35 would be highly disruptive at this point and the USN is not massively interested in more Super Hornet. He could force the USN to get more as well as the USMC to adopt the Super Hornet but there will be resistance to that.
Lockheed Martin has spread production of the F-35 across the US ensuring it has a strong defensive base amongst Republican and Democrat politicians.
Fedaykinafter achieving a 95% hit rate against ISIS in over 200 attacks, Iraq has ordered the much larger CH-5 UCAV from China to augment its medium sized CH-4Bs
The new CH-5 has a much greater endurance and payload than the old.
900kg vs 200kg ordnance
30hr vs 14hr endurancehttp://mil.news.sina.com.cn/jssd/2017-01-08/doc-ifxzkfuh6078755.shtml
This comes on the back of last months’ finance ministry budget release that showed Iraq buying FD-2000 SAMs from China for $2.5Bn.
Interesting developments sheytanelkebir, the success of the CH-4B certainly shows the leaps and bounds the Chinese have made when it comes to defence electronics. The CH-4B has been a rather unreported sales success in that Region with a number of Arab states buying into it.
FD-2000/HQ-9 is a major development certainly, the question is how far is Iraq sorting out its radar coverage and integrating these assets together. I know the Danish had to deploy an AN/TPS-77 to help deal with allied air Traffic management and Iraqi civilian Air Traffic control has been struggling to keep track of all the different air assets buzzing around over their country.
FedaykinMIG35 has everything new with upgraded engines, TVC, composite materials in construction, 3D tiled AESA on larger nose, new electro optical systems, quad dfbw etc. MIG35 provide vast arsenal of cheaper PGMs and standoff missiles. The Grom family starts from MIG35.
newer RD33 has no problem with MTBO. the MIG29 recent record in IAF service is better than M2K.These Gripen E/F-16 lack power supply, engine power and rotodome size to be effective in AESA operations. only stupid airforces will invest in them.
There is no such thing as stealth, Supercruise, high altitude, long range with oversize engine in single engine fighter and still called it 5G.
MIG35 is the correct investment for keeping R33 engine line open for exports and maintaince, provide lower cost standoff missiles alternative to heavier fighters.
BWAHAHAHA! You just can’t resist defending your beloved Mig-35 JSR! Better dig out this gif representing your grip on reality again!
FedaykinThat’s hilarious. I and others were not quite shouted down a few years ago when we said the Osprey would be so much more than useful on the RN carriers, and now the “High Ups” are interested?
Within the RN yes not so much the MOD and Treasury. More than one senior officer have expressed an interest in what Osprey could do as a force enhancer for the QE class and UK carrier strike.
Within the UK defence budget the RN making a big fuss about it would be counterproductive, the Treasury are not going to humour the idea as it currently stands. There are many requirements competing for money and difficult decisions are already being made like dropping Harpoon.
For the admirals getting the USMC to bring Osprey with them when they deploy onto QELiz is attractive as it gets the type onto the carrier via the back door. The recent pooling agreement with the USMC will make their F-35B very regular visitors on the QE class, persuading them to bring the V-22 regularly on those deployments will allow it to bed into the ship system. I can even see the UK training some pilots on type (I believe we already have a few on exchange).
The thinking being if it can show its worth regularly the Treasury might lighten up to the idea of a small buy. Four to five airframes, a couple of the the roll on refuelling rigs with all support and training coming directly out of the US would allow two to deploy on carrier, two for UK training and possibly one spare. The training and spare being available for a surge. At a pinch three airframes if you cut things to the bone and really LEAN on the USMC/USN for support.
FedaykinIts not a small rebuild. That’s why the govt had to reverse itself after opting for the F-35C. The costs associated with a Emcat ECO were very steep and this is when the vessel was still in construction.
And in any event, with a combat radius of 800 km on internal fuel the F-35B is hardly short-legged. Operating from a ski-jump it’ll probably match or out-range its peers once its cleared with drop tanks (blk 4).
There is another factor that people tend to forget when it comes to the UK and globally operating the F-35B off a carrier which is the availability of long range air to air refuelling.
In the early 80’s with only the Victor tankers if the Harriers were operating off a carrier somewhere distant they had to do it on internal fuel with drop tanks. The Voyager tanker can provide fuel to a task force globally, there is a good chance that these days the UK can find an airbase that the Voyager can operate out of that could also allow it to support F-35B carrier operations. The Voyager is large, comfortable and carry spare crew so crew fatigue on along range tanking mission is not as great a concern.
That isn’t to say an organic tanking capability would be very useful, there is a reason why the RN high ups are VERY keen for the US Marine Corp to bring some of their MV-22 with them when they deploy their F-35B to the QELiz.
FedaykinI know they won’t make it because the didn’t 🙂
I do not know why they skipped the Mig-35, but I doubt it is because they already have decided on the F-16.
I can guess albeit it will trigger people like JSR, firstly India wants to use this contest to improve their Aerospace industry. With Mig-35 they learn nothing particularly new. Secondly the RD-33 is a real Achilles heal even it is latest variant, it has a far shorter MTBO than equivalent Western engine and you can’t shop around for support.
Finally as India realised replacing their huge number of Single engine Mig-21 and Mig-27 with twin engine Rafale was far more costly through life than they first considered.
The Rafale is a logical replacement for the Mig-29 and Jaguar in India service but a single engine type is a far better consideration for the rest.
Then again India is still hampering itself logistically with such a diverse fleet.
Personally I think the Mig-35 is a dead end and Mikoyan should focus on developing a single engine multi role stealth type utilising the same or similar engine as the T-50/PAK-FA and pulling through technology from the Mig-35 program like radar. There would be a solid market for a type like that.
FedaykinDon’t go by such low prices by some un-named official. There is no new build Western 4th generation fighter available at that price point. And after the MRCA saga, the MoD and MoF know very well what to expect when it comes to prices for the jets that were in the competition. At most a 5-10% price variation may be seen depending on the scale of fighters to be built, but nowhere near $45 million. Only the Tejas Mk1 will be available at that price.
Possibly but pricing is always a bit nebulous, if India is serious about the numbers price can be driven down. In theory a Block 50/52 is around that figure but that us leaving plenty of ancillary costs out (local facilities etc). I would presume that India not only wants to build them but also integrate their own weapons. The thing is there was a reason why the F-16 was punted for the MMRCA contest it is a pretty heavy and complex jet in its latest and proposed formats. If India did go down that path a variant similar to the F-16I with an AESA might be attractive. They already use lots of Israeli kit including Python-5 and Derby.
If talking about wild cards the KAI FA-50 could easily punt below that price point, the rub is not knowing what they want beyond “Single engine” hinders understanding what they actually want!
FedaykinOh no, I hope they don’t remove 130mm guns… 😮
The Russian 130mm guns are going as well which considering how deep this modernisation is proving to be hardly surprising. It will be interesting to see if they go for the 130mm single mount or the 76mm.
FedaykinYou know that is Tango III’s job Deino!
FedaykinSigh, you know pages after pages about comparative kinematics when it comes to F-35 vs are utterly asinine and miss the point of why Lightning II is so cutting edge when it comes to close air combat…its level of systems integration and sensor awareness combined with late generation LOAL missiles like ASRAAM and AIM-9X.
Any conversation with pilots that have transitioned from legacy types like F-16 or f/A-18 and even more modern types like Typhoon will raise up the same point the F-35 gives them a level of awareness that is a step beyond what they have ever experienced before. They have the capability to enter and leave combat at their own violation with complete situational awareness and engage with late generation Air to Air missiles that can reliable engage targets across multiple flight regimes.
The obsession that people are expressing about AoA is all very well but not much use when you are up against an aircraft that can see you first and take the first shot before you are even aware what is going on.
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