My all-time favorite: Silver F-104. Shining gloriously under the sun, challenging the enemy “here I am, come get some!”

If I remember correctly, Russia claimed Turkey provided ASELSAN-made Skywatcher Air Defence Network System to Georgia. If true, this may be one of the reasons for the relative success of Georgian air defense.

In any case, it is more than interesting that Russia did / could not achieve full air superiority against Georgia. Air-land coordination and use of PGM + night attack capabilities also seemed highly poor.

Unfortunately, the article is subscriber-only. Does it contain any details of the proposed modernisation?

Here is the full article:

Argentina receives offer of modernised F1Ms from Spain

Juan Manuel Barragán JDW Correspondent
Buenos Aires

The Spanish government is offering the Argentine Air Force a number of modernised Mirage F1M fighters, Jane’s has learned.

Spanish sources said the Mirage F1s would replace Argentina’s Mirage IIIEA fighters, which are scheduled to be phased out of service in December 2010.

The modernised F1Ms will remain in service for about seven years as an interim solution until Argentina selects a new fighter. The F1Ms will be equipped to launch AM-39 Exocet anti-ship missiles and AIM-9M Sidewinder air-to-air missiles.

The Argentine Air Force will receive between 12 and 16 aircraft, sources told Jane’s , although no precise figures were available on the offering price.

He’s mentioning the ones seen on this photo I think

and this

The Scenario:

You work in the marketing division of a major weapons manufacturer and after sipping you cup of coffee early one morning, you find a memo. The memo gives you a directive from the CEO entrusting you to market one of the major new products of the company – a kick ass fighter plane. You believe that the fighter plane has great potential – it could become the next F-16 or MiG-21 and you are determined to validate the confidence vested in you by your CEO. This is your chance to make a break and you are all ready to take it!

How would you market this fighter plane?

I think “affordability” and “interoperability” would be the two key words of my marketing campaign.

Affordability: Because the quantum leap in tehcnology, defence and aerospace technology in general, made weapon systems more and more expensive, difficult to operate and maintain. If a fighter capable and advanced enough to counter modern day threats yet with a logical price, than this would certainly be some advantage. It does not necessarily be affordable, it’s ok even if it seems like one 🙂

Interoperability: Be regional powers or small states, joint operations are becoming more and more important. A weapon system capable of communicating with other countries’ systems is a force multiplier. In modern days, especially after 9/11, conducting a joint exercise with a regional power can be more deterrent than say, making a fancy Soviet style parade.

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I did this for a April fools joke.. that a F-22 had defected from Taiwan to China

The pilot was going to be Jai Row who had become a little unstable, or Jim Shu who had done a runner, the exercise was called Polar foil an anagram of April fool :diablo:

It caused a few people to choke on their coffee, but no real harm done.:)

You bet… It still circulates around some forums once in a while as “China’s answer to F-22”.

😀

Didn´t you state that German shipyards had no chance to receive any new contracts from Turkey due “to failed conduct in the past”?

Regards

What I said was, I saw their chances -though not zero- as very low due their behavior in after-sales project management. The TN personnel whom I talked to had very hard thoughts against German contractors because of low maintenance and training support quality. It’s not a secret that Turkish submarine command does not have a very efficient relationship with German contractors.

That’s why I and most friends around here saw the selection as a big surprise, because Turkey in the project want to implenmet own command and control system or at least modify an existing one according to requirements, a derivative of the original one. Navantia reportedly came with a very advantegous offer. But in the end, it seems Germans won because of the very high offset ratio (80% of 2.5bil Euros!). Maybe HDW convinced SSM+TN to improve the ties. It is sure that if TN was not convinced, the selection was not possible.