The original NG was going to have fuel capacity of ~2.8T (no idea what fuel density).
The current NG is slated for a fuel capacity of 3.4T (again, no idea what fuel density, but we can probably assume Saab are consistent with it)
The NG that was being marketed to the Dutch in 2009 had an internal fuel capacity quoted as ~3.3 tonnes (7300 lbs). And yet the empty weight being quoted was 7136 kgs (15700 lbs)..and now the internal fuel is nearly the same, but the empty weight has climbed to 8000 kgs.
So its clear that what was the original design goal, could not be achieved for the Gripen E. It’s not lying, but really, you cannot defend it as being just a nominal growth thanks to increased internal fuel. That is clearly not the case. Most likely during actual detail design, they found that the target empty weight was way too optimistic for accomodating the additional payload and fuel weight.
But any customer who would have signed on to the Gripen E looking at the specs being quoted back then, would’ve been sorely disappointed to find the empty weight ~1000 kgs higher than was promised and with its resultant payload decrease for the same fuel-fraction.
Looks like the Pakistani military is now fighting its own.
A year or so back, we had the PAF Erieye attack where one aircraft was lost, another damaged & the PAF hauled up in Parliament & news that insiders may have been involved. There was also the attack earlier on PN.
Now its the Pakistani Navy again – and this time, its own officers were involved in trying to take over the ship.
This is bad news for the Pak military. These attacks are now being led by insiders as versus being merely abetted by them.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1131654/dockyard-attackers-planned-to-hijack-navy-frigate
raises questions on the safety of their nuclear weapons as well..but when the society is radicalised to such a degree, it’s hard to expect the military to not be affected.
Air Force Dhruv in action in Kashmir. I hadn’t seen and EO pod on it before.
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I actually saw an IA Dhruv just a few weeks ago with the Electro optic pod from my office in Bangalore..hadn’t seen it earlier with the EO pod earlier either.
China denies report of pilots killed in J-15 tests
The reports alleged that the commendation mentioned two pilots from a J-15 squadron who were killed while conducting aircraft trials related to Liaoning ‘s air operations. This revelation was hailed as rare admission of Chinese operational military fatalities, since such accidents are rarely reported in the country.
In a report published on 7 September, People’s Daily journalist Yan Jiaqi quoted military sources as saying that the citations are incorrect and that the persons who died were not pilots in the carrier wing but “comrades” who died while working on the J-15 project. The report also emphasised that the deaths were not related to the carrier tests. However the paper has stopped short of elaborating on the fatalities
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quite absurd..why on earth would a citation talk about deaths of “comrades” who worked on the J-15 project if it wasn’t directly related to the carrier tests? Natural deaths occur all the time, so why on earth would that get a mention in a citation?
Anyone with the interests of India at heart would oppose it tooth and nail. Arguing for the tender to be scaled back or scrapped is one thing, but simply substituting another contender for Rafale is absurd.
I think it is useful to observe the (public) silence of both the Russians and Americans on this matter, in contrast to the very public clamouring from Germany and the UK. At a certain point, continued advocacy of Typhoon becomes both juvenile on the part of those nations, and disrespectful of India and its processes.
In a way its good- they put pressure on the French to soften their stance and in that way bring negotiations to a conclusion. The Airbus partners are putting more pressure and making more of a noise because they were in with a real chance- they qualified for the shortlist but the Americans and Russians didn’t. They put up a costlier bid and lost- and now they’re trying to make amends for it, but it’s too late.