It depends which country quatar wants to extract favors from during that period. If they want something from the french gvt they are going to say they prefer Rafale. If they want to extract something from the brits they’ll say Eurofighter is da bomb.

This.

there has been a single AA battle involving a UAV, an RQ-1 shooting a Stinger at an Iraqi Mig-25
the Stinger missed, and the UAV got shot down. but here the fault lies with the missile, not the concept. arm any advanced jet with a single Stinger and chances are it won’t do much better
now arm UAVs and UCAVs with anything from AIM-9 to AIM-120 to cannons, and they will shoot stuff down, that’s really not that hard to. and contrary to advanced aircraft, they can win through sheer expendable numbers

That idea is the equivalent of adding a cheap IR trigger to an assault rifle, call it Terminator, and expect it to down things on its own, it can work but has the word fail written all over it.

The introduction of VAT since January it’s been a greater deterrence against those pesky tourists :dev2:.

Why is this all viewed with such astonishmenbt.

There’s no astonishment around spying, is the cynical hypocrisy and the false outrage what astonish people, this type of news only serve to credit the general suspicion.

So is it going to be an actual no fly zone rather than a ground attack zone as in Libya in 2011?

Not the former nor the later, just small arms for selected groups.

Enemy = Armenia, Iran

What haven’t stopped the Caucasus’s trio to ditch their hatred and work together with Iran on Syria.

Russia was generally pro-Armenia, but with the money Azerbaijan can pour into Russian defense industries, and growing energy interests.. good chance Russia can ditch Armenia for Azerbaijan which would be more lucrative.

They are doing fine selling to both so no need to ditch neither of them.

but don’t count on new Sukhoi sales to Azerbaijan.. since Sukhoi is run by an Armenian.

As a result of the efforts made by persons of Armenian descent, who lead the Russian aviation industry, the negotiations with Russia on the purchase of combat aircrafts Su-27, Su-30 and MiG-31 have not produced results.
Someone’s trolling like a sir in Azerbaijan :dev2:.

I know the Soviets/Russians get round it by designating the Kuznetsov as an ‘Aircraft Carrying Cruiser’ – but a full-blown ‘conventional’ carrier might not get through?

It looks like the Russians have two big issues with a CATOBAR style carrier – can’t use steam catapults for a North Sea Fleet carrier – and can’t get through the Dardanelles with a Black Sea Fleet carrier.

As long as the aircraft carrier belongs to one of the countries bordering Black Sea crossing Dardanelles strait shouldn’t be a problem finding an agreement.

Just like Japan and it’s “helicopter destroyers” Soviet Union decided to use “heavy aircraft carrying cruiser” for political reasons because aircraft carriers were defined as “weapons of aggression”.

The main problem for Russian Navy is finding a safe ice free port for it’s assets, ith even Constanta in southern Romania freezing nowadays, their options are not many… Sochi? :confused: Sukhumi maybe? :p

I wouldn’t call that a cornered market!

Most countries try to adapt their cargo needs to the aircraft they have and if they really need greater capabilities they just charter a flight with Volga-Dnepr :dev2:.