BlackArcherwe aren’t in the 1930’s now, there is no danger of Switzerland being annexed by their neighbours.
And being landlocked has some significant advantages for defence. No expensive Navy for example.
But that is where you assume that the only mission that is of importance to the Swiss should be air policing (which wasn’t the Typhoon’s strongest suit anyway as evaluations pointed out) and not any other type of mission, whereas the Swiss Govt. and its Air Force have every right (some would say duty) to prepare for the worst scenario and hope that they never need to perform any other mission other than air policing.
BlackArcherNavy experimenting with composite structures for warships
KOLKATA: The Navy is building two Anti- Submarine Warfare Corvettes using carbon fibre composite material from Sweden for the first time as it goes beyond using steel for warships. Warships are traditionally made using stainless steel but the new carbon fibre composite superstructure, imported from Swedish shipyard Kockums, not only makes the warship lighter but also makes it difficult for the enemy to spot.
…Being built by defence PSU Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE) in Kolkata, INS Kiltan and INS Kavaratti are named after islands in the
Lakshwadeep archipelago. The Kamorta-class corvettes would be delivered to the Navy within 2017.“These are the first ships where such a technology is being used in India. Stealth is the most important feature of composite material as it is less susceptible to detection unlike steel,” Commodore Ratnakar Ghosh, Director (shipbuilding), GRSE, told PTI.
The ship’s superstructure is made of composite material while the remaining part including hull uses steel.
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BlackArcherAny idea if they’re planning a larger number of SAMs for P-15B?
While the 32 Barak-8s on P15A are far superior to the Shtils that the IN relied on previously for area air defence, they’re a bit fewer than the norm for a destroyer of their weight class. 48 or better 64 VLS that are Barak-8 compatible would be far better.
And whatever happened to the idea of equipping hypersonic brahmos 2 to P-15B?
No, it appears that they’re going with 32 Barak 8s for the P-15B as well..hypersonic Brahmos won’t be ready by the time the P-15B is ready for sea trials. Then it’ll be another case of the ship being ready before it’s armament is. I think they’ll just stick with Brahmos for the INS Visakhapatnam class.
BlackArcherThe IAF will need to move quickly..there are just 5 white-tails remaining now that RAAF has basically announced that they will buy 2 more..and RNZAF is also supposedly interested in looking at buying a couple of C-17s. May end up being a race to snap up the remaining white-tails with a few operators looking to top up before the line closes.
BlackArcherAs above. Given the intended duties of the aircraft, Typhoon is probably the best aircraft in the world for that role. And I can see why Gripen would be considered on the cost basis. But I don’t understand how Rafale even gets a look in here (it is no doubt a superb aircraft, but not as suited to Switzerland’s needs as Typhoon), and the Super Bug even more so. Surely F15 or f16 would be more suited?
And you know Switzerland’s needs more than the Swiss Air Force? They set up an evaluation of all 3 types based on THEIR assessment of their needs, and found that the Rafale was the best fit for them. I can’t imagine how anyone would question their evaluation which was considered fair and transparent and conducted to see how each competitor performed missions that the Swiss Air Force ALREADY conducts. the Typhoon came second and that’s that. It doesn’t fit Swiss needs better than the Rafale. The competent authorities don’t believe so.
BlackArcherGallantry award for an IAF Mirage-2000 pilot who recovered the aircraft safely despite violent pitch oscillations that nearly incapacitated him.
President confers Vayu Sena medal to Sqn Ldr Kapil Kareem
He was authorized to lead a 2 Vs 2 combat mission on 06 May 2014. The sortie was uneventful till the second combat situation. Towards the end of the second combat situation, on commencing a right turn at 11500′ at speed of 480 knots, the aircraft went into severe oscillations in pitch. The pitch of the aircraft varied rapidly from +15 to -25. The rapid oscillations exposed the pilot to large positive and negative g loads in a very short time. During oscillations, a maximum of +7.69 g and -6.13g were recorded (the normal human tolerance is barely -3.5g). The high rapid onset and varying g forces jolted the pilot inside the cockpit banging his head against the sight camera and canopy. The violent jolting severely sprained the pilot’s neck and he nearly became incapacitated. He could not move his neck to glance at the warning panel on the right side. He maintained calm and displaying courage of the highest order, skillfully controlled the aircraft by throttling back and selecting air brakes out. Subsequently, the oscillations stopped abruptly. He called off the combat and handed over the lead of the formation to the attacker leader. Unperturbed by his incapacitation, he maintained good situational awareness and commenced recovery. Despite being unable to straighten his neck and the resultant limitation to the vision in front, he landed the aircraft safely.
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BlackArcherAdded some others for comparison:
MiG-23MLD = 1.05 T/W, 3400 N/m2
JF-17 = 1.05 T/W, 3463 N/m2
interesting figures..what do these numbers tell you about the maneuverability of the JF-17 ? Very closely matched to the MiG-23MLD in both Thrust/Weight and Thrust/Wing Area
BlackArcherIndian Rafale deal to be finalized by end of May
India and France aim to finalise the deal for 36 Dassault Rafale fighters for the Indian Air Force (IAF) by the end of May, according to defence industry sources.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is believed to have insisted on this deadline with his French counterpart Francois Hollande in Paris, soon after announcing the fighters’ procurement on 10 April.
..Meanwhile, a delegation comprising senior French government officials and top Dassault executives is expected in New Delhi over the next few days to begin negotiating the fighter contract, which is estimated at around USD5-6 billion. French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is likely to be part of this delegation, but no confirmation of his inclusion was possible.
Industry sources familiar with the ongoing talks between the two governments told IHS Jane’s that Dassault is reported to have agreed to more than double its annual Rafale building capacity from 11 to 24 aircraft. The company had slowed down Rafale production rate to around 11 platforms per year as no new orders were forthcoming.
The French government is also believed to have persuaded its air force to reduce its Rafale induction until the IAF contract is fulfilled.
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If this does happen, it would be a record of sorts to see a new deal signed in such a short period..after having gotten used to statements from all quarters about imminent signature of the deal and then seeing nothing happening, it will come as a big relief to see an actual contract signature.
BlackArcherArgentina looking at it is no complement to the J-10, they want whatever they can get their hands on. Their options are VERY limited, due in no small part to the aggression of past regimes, and utter incompetence with their economy by the current one.
A great aircraft it may be, but it will never be a success when it has to compete with proven airframes such as the Gripen, and especially the F16.
And I wasn’t complimenting a fighter about which so little accurate or trustworthy info is available. I just stated that the Argentinians looked at the J-10 and the JF-17 and now per reports, seem to be looking harder at the JF-17. Obviously, for Argentina, as for Pakistan, cost is one of the biggest criteria driving a decision.
BlackArcherIf you read back my response, you’ll learn that maintenance issues was just one possible option. Nobody knows for sure.. The Al-31FN is a specific version made by Salyut, not Saturn. The last batches of the engine were completely assembled in India, it’s safe to assume that numeous parts of the engine (especially bearings, pipes, bushings, sealings etc.) come from 2nd sources in India as a part of the offsets.
I was hoping to see a source for your other claim that Snecma M53-P2 engines in IAF service also had issues that the French AF didn’t.
That is hardly an indication of anything because neither did IAF break their necks to get more Mirages if we already talk about it. Ten surplus 2000Hs in 2004, that’s all.
They didn’t buy any more not because the IAF didn’t want any more but rather because they were too expensive to buy in large numbers when India’s economy was doing badly in the ’90s. When they did want to get more fighters in the late 1990s the Mirages were their preference and not MiG-29s. Every MiG-29 variant offered to the IAF since then has had a very lukewarm reception from the IAF.
It would be appropriate to get something more recent, instead of repeating figures from 1984-1990. The teething problems of the 29 were, indeed, immense, especially since the type was rushed into service as half-finished and India was quite unlucky to be the very first export customer who got all the blows alongside the Soviets. I can vaguely remember the first RD-33s breaking down after mere 150 hours but by the time first WP customers got their hands on their MiGs, these figures improved 5-6x (still nothing much but at least a semi-decent product). Anyway, that was 25-30 years ago and I fail to see how’s that relevant for today more than showing all the catastrophic problems the early PW-powered F-15s and F-16s or TF-30-powered F-14s have been plagued with in late 70s/early 80s..
The point I was making is that its not the first time that the IAF has had issues with an engine that it procured in large numbers from Russia/Soviet Union. Russia has only now begun to use the Su-30SM variant of the MKI which uses the same engine as the MKI, so it was the IAF that was the largest customer for this particular variant of the engine and it is likely that those issues it faced which led to engine failures weren’t due to local production or poor maintenance practices and just design flaws that needed to be corrected. the RD-33 example clearly proved that this wouldn’t be the first time the IAF faced teething troubles with an engine and I’m not trying to say that Soviet/Russian engines are the only ones that face design issues.
I just took exception to your attempt to lay the blame on the customer who has suffered the most. It was this attitude of MiG Corp. a couple of decades ago that pretty much alienated the IAF from them and drove them much closer to Irkut, which by some reports, has been a lot more responsive to customer issues.
BlackArcherI completely agree with TR1..adding MAWS and LWS shouldn’t be that expensive, versus the defensive edge it provides to the fighter..I’ve always wondered why the IAF hasn’t ordered MAWS and LWS on its Su-30MKIs either..was hoping that the Saab kit would be bought and those would be integrated onto the fighters when they came in for overhauls.
BlackArcherOn purely technical comparison you are right. But F-16 is -right now- offered with GE-132. All F-16IN, F-16V, F-16BR, KF-16 had GE-132. And right now, J-10 is -until now- offered with AL-31FN. On theory, latter part is also correct, but it didn’t happen in real life and “engine” is still an important downside of J-10.
How many crashes of the J-10 have been reported so far? I’m saying “reported” because news doesn’t filter out of China that easily if it doesn’t flatter the regime.
Talks or not, no one else has interested in J-10.
May well be that no other customer is interested in the J-10, but very recently Argentina has looked at it..and now most reports indicate that they’re gravitating towards the FC-1 instead, thanks to its price, despite being less capable than the J-10.
BlackArcherIn its original form the MiG-29 was a highly specialised aircraft with little utility outside the mass air war over Germany and Eastern Europe for which it was designed. It can hardly be taken as a proxy for modern Russian aircraft. MTBO was not a concern in the shadow of Götterdämmerung, maximum performance for minimum cost was. The major redesign the Fulcrum has undergone since the Cold War (MiG-29M and from there to MiG-29K) has produced a much more well-rounded platform, better suited to the export market and indeed to Russia’s post-Cold War domestic requirements, at the cost of eroding much of the distinction between itself and the Flanker. Nonetheless, Russia’s failure to take advantage of the existing AL-31 engine and to develop its own J-10-ski represents, perhaps, a greater missed opportunity than that of any other nation.
The reason I posted that snippet was to show that issues with Russian engines didn’t necessarily have to do with maintenance failures, but most were related to poor build quality and design flaws or being operated in conditions that they were not necessarily designed for. MSphere suggested that he wouldn’t take the IAF’s issues with Russian engines at face value just because other operators don’t report them, whereas if you read the report on the RD-33, the problems primarily lay with the engine design itself and not poor maintenance. Besides, how many other operators of Russian equipment have a free press that regularly reports so much on defence issues?
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