According to Avia.ru newsletter Russia is about to sign a contract with Brazil for the delivery of various helicopters. Avia.ru said their sources was Janes, and that the contract is to be signed pretty soon. Total vallue of the deal was supposed to be 400 mln USD, and the types mentioned where Mil Mi-171, 26 and 35. Probably more info to come soon….

Tjhis news is apparenly hot! Mi-26s are for the Army, the rest are for the Air Force… it was all over the news today here in Brazil.

Regards,

Hammer

Argentina and Brazil being the only candidates I can think of. The former is pretty possible, the latter should be going for Rafales one day, I think. As for any others, I don’t think so, even if nothing can be ruled out (Peru?).

Operationally-wise some 36 long-legged Flankers based out of the southernmost Argentinian air bases should take the sleep away from some of the people at the British MoD office in London… 😉

LOL!

Regards

Hammer

I was reading this thread and noticed that I had no idea if there was there ever was in the history of Aircraft Carriers any case of expansion through cutting and plugging? I know this is done regularly in the civilian side, but what about in the VC arena?

Regards

Hammer

If someone would make a serious request, perhaps Dassault would consider re-opening the line. But nobody has done. That’s why it was shut. Indias idea of “immediate” seems to be “We’ll think about making a decision sometime this decade. Or maybe next”. 7 years ago, India wanted new M2K in service “as soon as possible” – & 6 1/2 years later, Dassault got tired of waiting for the evaluation process to start, & shut the line. It’s not being “too picky”, it’s not having a single customer who’s willing to negotiate in good faith!

Come on Swerve, you have to be kidding: “good faith”? 😉 A Government has its own pace and is driven back and forth by the political tides that change every quarter or so, any company that choses to sell to governments surely know how they work and knows also that it can’t really do anything about this…

The Indians main priority is to buy the “right aircraft” for their needs, notice tha “right” above does not necessarily mean the best, or cheaper, or best performing… it means just the “right” aircraft for the local political reality at the time of decision.

If they are lucky the airframe manufacturers will have a good option for the purchasing nation at the time the bid is opened. If not, too bad for the seller! If the French Government thought that maintaining the M2000 line open longer would be a good strategy for the country why didn’t they buy some 24 units themselves? This would allow the line to be left open longer…

Oh! Maybe it was Dassault that didn’t want the line open in order to be certain that the French Air Force (or their politicians!) would not be tempted to cancel part of the Rafale order for some new units of modernized M2000, right? 😉

I think you inavertently nailed the real problem in your text above, Dassault’s problem was not that India delayed its purchase, it’s that India was the ONLY client around (at least partialy) interested in new build M2000… 😉

Regards,

Hammer

http://www.fav-club.com web magazine reports that the first two aircraft have been delivered today disassembled directly to Barcelona AFB in Venezuela on the belly of a An-124 transport. Cammo is 2-tone gray air superiority scheme with national flag and traditional “Combat triangle” on the tail . Quality pictures still not available to confirm this info.

Regards,

Hammer

Brazil do not need highly sophisticate fighter aircraft,when the real threat was internal,not external.
I just read that average 20 people were killed in the slum of San paola,one out of 5 is unemployed,just last week,heavely armed gangs member attack police station resulting large casualties for both side.giving this problem,Brazil better concentrate there limited resources trying to fight this problem.

Well Challenge, if we go down the “need to have” line of reasoning, even the US, the largest military power ever in the world history, wouldn’t really NEED them since it’s only two next door neighbors can’t ever be seen as some kind of real military menace to the US…

Also since the fall of the USSR there is hardly any case for the purchase of modern fighters by the western european nations, but, for some reason, 🙂 they keep on doing it…

Geopolitical reality changes quickly these days, today’s best buddy might turn out to be a future rival or outright enemy… Iran, Iraq, and Venezuela come to mind on this issue….

In our specific case, after a general region-wide fighter fleet upgrade with first generation supersonic models in the 70s South America is currently in the process of replacing tha now obsolete generation. Oh, yeah! Our neighbor in the north just bought some nice new and shiny Su-30s… Today Chavez is a friend of Brazil, but who know what may happen in the future? Should we just wait further and keep flying militarily useless airframes? I don’t think so.

You are right police & crime issues have nothing to do with the military forces thus they should be dealt with by the police forces, falling outside the main theme of this forum.

Regards

Hammer

You’re right, Garry, it must have slipped my mind that Russia’s motives and actions are purely humanitarian. Misunderstood and misjudged, the gentle Bear.

Well I see the Russians less geopoliticaly-mided and more business oriented at this point in time. They now need to keep their defence industries alive and moving forward and they only got the export sale as a viable option for this. On the other hand if the US government could they would certainly immediately stop selling modern military equipement in the world market. Even to their staunchest allies… 🙂 Today’s unconditional ally can quickly become tomorrow’s rival or enemy, think Iran, think Venezuela.. 😉

Regards, Hammer