However it is spinned…entering some other country’s territory willy nally and assassinating people on her territory does not equal aid for services provided.

even if the person assassinated is the world’s most wanted terrorist, who would most likely (based on previous experience) be tipped off and vanish if that country’s govt. is asked for permission to nab him?

since there is discussion going on regarding the MiG-29UPG, here is an article that lists out the changes. Yet to see the Thales Top-Owl F HMD being used by pilots test-flying the MiG-29UPG. We saw them on the IN’s MiG-29K/KUB pilots.

link to article

Overall, 62 aircraft will be upgraded, including several two-seat combat trainers. They will be given the latest avionics and advanced weapons.

In addition, airframe and powerplant improvements will extend their service life considerably, with the planes transitioning to on-condition maintenance.

The IAF MiG-29 upgrade concept complies with the one adopted by the Russian Air Force to its MiG-29SMTs that have been in service since 2009 and well-mastered by Russian military pilots. At the same time, the composition of the avionics and weapon suites of the upgraded IAF MiG-29s will have a high degree of commonality with the carrierborne MiG-29K/KUB fighters that have entered service with Indian Navy on 19 February 2010.

Foreign-made avionics was integrated with the avionics suite of the MiG-29UPG at the customer’s request (the so-called ‘international avionics suite’)..

The fire control system of the MiG-29UPG is wrapped around the advanced slotted-array Zhuk-M2E radar from Phazotron-NIIR Corp. and OLS-UEM IRST sensor with the laser, thermal-imaging and television capabilities from NIIPP (similar radar and IRST are used in the MiG-29K/KUB).

The cockpit management system is based on full-colour multifunction liquid-crystal displays. The international segment of the avionics suite comprises a Thales helmet-mounted target designator, a Sagem inertial/satellite navigation system, an Indian EW system and an Israeli ECM station, with the same system installed in the MiG-29K/KUB.

The basic weapons suite of the MiG-29UPG is the same as that of the MiG-29SMT and MiG-29K/KUB. Unlike the weapons suite of the standard MiG-29, it has RVV-AE air-to-air active radar homing missiles and air-to-surface precision-guided munitions, such as Kh-29T general-purpose TV-homing missiles, Kh-31A antiship active radar-homing missiles, Kh-31P antiradiation missiles, KAB-500Kr TV-homing smart bombs, etc.

The Kaveri engine program is for all intents and purposes dead. A potential M88 variant to be named “Kaveri” may or may not take its place depending on if an agreement with France is ever signed.

GTRE’s Kaveri as it exists now will never be operationally deployed in any fighter. It simply does not provide enough thrust and it never has. All of the “claimed” performance figures were unmet benchmarks. If anyone has ever worked on a poorly executed product development cycle, you will know how it goes. Unrealistic claims are made, actual deliverables are underwhelming. Bull**** is peddled with even more unrealistic claims. Repeat cycle until broke.

The Kaveri engine’s actual delivered thrust to weight ratio is anywhere between 5:1 and 6:1 depending on which excuses GTRE is using that day. In either case it falls well below the >7:1 thrust weight ratios of engines achieved by the US and Soviets 30 years ago.

The Kaveri K9’s shortfall in thrust is well known, so you’re repeating known facts (and adding some vitriol for good measure). No one here claimed that it was ready as it is to be used on a Tejas Mk1/2 or AMCA. Thats the very reason why a JV is required. Otherwise why on earth would India need to spend good money on a JV ?

Wish they’d upgraded the Avionics to true cutting-edge standards rather than settling for a technological level equivalent to the 7-year old MKI. Given these will likely be flying for another 15 years into the era of 5th gen aircraft I’d have preferred they at least have a phased array radar(instead of Zhuk-ME), an HMD(instead of Schel HMS), MAWS and so on…

not all of the IAF has to be at the MRCA technology level. After all, not all of the enemy AF’s are at the MRCA levels now or will be in 15 years. Rather, time and money invested in such upgrades that will only be in use for 10-15 years become more important. the MiG-29UPG upgrade is effective- it doesn’t create a MKI type fighter, but it overcomes almost all of the MiG-29’s weaknesses and makes it very competitive against anything the PAF has.

The root cause of what Pakistan is today and the threat is posses to the rest of the world is due to India’s attitude towards Pakistan since its inception. If India had settled the Kashmir issue, Pakistan would not be the militarily aggressive country it is today, it would not be a nuclear power, it would not be sponsoring militancy, it would not have the industrial military complex it has. If the Kashmir issue had been settled, most probably India and Pakistan would be in a loose confederation type arrangement. But now not even the US, let alone India can get rid of Pakistan without significant negative, and in case of India mortal, consequences. So thank you India for creating a monster!

500 trucks pass through Pakistan every day to support NATO in Afghanistan, so to compensate for all the wear tear caused by the movement of these trucks Pakistan could impose toll taxes. US$ 15,000 per truck should suffice as the total will be $2.7b i.e. equal to the aid at risk.

India’s attitude ?! :rolleyes: Truly ridiculous !

India’s attitude is this- Kashmir is ours. Indians can turn around and say the same of Pakistan- that relations have been blighted because Pakistan cannot accept that it failed in its attempt to capture Kashmir..and because Pakistan is unable to accept that the Kashmir king acceded to the Indian union, not to Pakistan and that it was this king who requested Indian intervention to prevent Kashmir from being capture by Pakistan.

Same can be said of Pakistan- Pakistan should have settled the Kashmir issue. Why blame India as if its all been India’s fault ?! They couldn’t capture it in 1948 by sending in invading tribesmen, and despite proposals to make the LoC into an international border having been floated, it is Pakistan that refuses it. So why blame India if it refuses to accept Pakistan’s version of events or the “truth”.

when will people ever learn,

Money does not buy friendship.

then why give any money at all?:rolleyes:

One question- is the radome shape defined by the boundary of the white line or is it that just the way that the radome has been painted ? The radiation symbol is drawn behind the white radome, so does that indicate that the radome is in front of that?

If so, any reason why its shape is different from regular radomes?

T50-2 finally did its first flight at LII today

photos (c) Sergey Lysenko (c) Ivan Kirillov

What a beauty !