The key there is, they returned :D.

I think the key issue is, did such combat damage actually cause any hindrance to the Russian air effort during the Georgian war or not? I wouldn’t have thought so (plenty more Su-25s from where they came from, within the Russian AF;)).

A nice way of summing it all up, thanks Soyuz.

FAC is an interesting topic to follow, it certainly made a big difference in Afghanistan in the last decade.
It doesn’t really matter what aircraft your using in CAS or ground attack, be it Su-20 or A-10, if you haven’t got the training or technology for FAC or aerial recon it’s all gone to waste.

What aerial reconnaissance did the Russians use over Georgia? How was their ground based Forward-Air-Control – is the Russian army even trained in FAC?

In the past i had posted the words of an ex HAF Mirage mechanic writing in a forum. He was saying that the construction quality of the Mirage was beating easily that of the F16. I guess he wasn’t joking. Even AFTER the C4 explosion, it’s in a good condition. 😮

Did he mean that the Mirage was better screwed together, i.e. better build quality, or was he just saying the Mirage was just sturdier and stronger than the F-16?

BTW, why have you got a picture of Enda Kenny, the Irish Prime minister, as your avatar?:confused:

The canopies aren’t jettisoned during ejection – notice the absence of the canopy glass in both frames. Where are the seats – they’ve obviously been deployed – why are those guide rail, hydraulic-ram like thingys extended?

Why did the Iraqis use the “ML” as an Exocet launcher if its avionics fit was irrelevant? I would have thought that the MiG-23ML was the only aircraft with the speed, radar and missiles (R-24) to take on Iranian F-4s And F-14s? Sinking oil tankers in the Persian Gulf is surely a distraction to its main talents and strengths – shooting down other fast aircraft?:confused:

I would have thought the MiG-23BN or Su-20 as more suitable for the role of ‘dumb’ missile launcher against shipping…

Levsha, thanks for your help, much apreciated. 🙂 Please, what does it exactly says here “the first aircraft of this contract *something* this year ?” and here “*something something* complete aggregates *something* 2010?” Many thanks.

It just states that that the Nizhny Novgorod Sokol intended to deliver to RSK MiG, components for the assembly of the first MiG-29M/M2s in 2010. So presumably the aircraft are already being built at this moment.
Not a lot of hard information, though, especially considering the present political situation in Syria?:confused:

No need for the rolleyes smiley, this was real – with the erata that they used an ML, not BN

That wasn’t what I was “rolling eyes” about.
Why did the Iraqis fit the ML with Exocet, I mean what use is the ML’s Sapfir Air-Intercept radar for detecting shipping?

Where do you have this from? No MiG-25 ever defected to Turkey, AFAIK.

Maybe he’s thinking of the MiG-29 that defected to Turkey in 1989?:confused:

You forgot Mirage F1EQ with Kh-29L missiles.

I didn’t – that’s the other way around – French aircraft fitted with Soviet kit.