Forget the gloss see the Source, A retired Air Cmdre is as credible as they get. Against that what do you have pm messgaes on the internet ?

a retired Air Cmder who knows only what he knows.
other people on this forum or any other forum or some mass audience magazine is not my 1st source on this thing.
I hope you do understand that there are people here not only talk the talk but really do walk the walk outside of the internet?

I just read in March issue of the Force Magazine an article written by Mr.Sengupta (a man of questionable credentials according to some), that the Indian FGFA will be significantly lighter than the PAK FA desptie having a second seat, he also points at less internal fuel and use of Plasma Stealth.

He claims the PAK FA will be 24 tonnes and FGFA 17.2 Tonnes.

I would like to hear you opinions on this (especially the Russian ones).

i.e this was posted just for you because you spread rumours that Russia first went to China for fifth gen jv.

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showpost.php?p=1714665&postcount=306

for the first part? you are asking me for opinion? I don[t think you want to know. 😀

for the second part, as I have discussed with Flateric in private discussions, he pointed out to me that Tsagi-MIG and Chinese Organizations were in deep discussions/joint design efforts in early 90s about what was then called “4th gen fighter” programs.

so for you to accuse me of ” spread rumours that Russia first went to China for fifth gen jv” just because you read some glossy magazine got their hands on some partial information… is rather brave of you. as what you think as my “rumours” might actually be true. 😉

p.s.
when I intend to spread a “rumour” I will state as so.

117 (AL-41F1)

pardon the ignorance but:

Wikipedia’s section on engines said final version will be equiped with
” 2× New unnamed engine by NPO Saturn and FNPTS MMPP Salyut of 175 kN each ”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_PAK_FA#Specifications

is this two seperate project one from NPO Saturn and one from Salyut
or
a single combined effort?

also, unrelated.

is there any Russian equivalent of F414-EFE type of effort aimed at mid sized engine market? Klimov has been awful quiet lately. I guess the more appropriate thing would to ask: would Russia develope mid-sized Mig-29 replacement fighter? and would it be twin engined?

thanks.

but I’d be astounded if the PLAAF in the eighties and nineties hadn’t factored in a Taiwan air battle scenario and the capability to operate from less vulnerable bases in said scenario, into the future mainstay of their fleet.

their main adversary in the 70s and 80s is the soviets. 90s were time of transition for them.
The relation and trade with btw ML and Taiwan in the 80s was looking up and up. They were on the verge of turning chapter and even a modest loose union was in the talks… cumulating in the 92′ agreement that both side recognized there is a single sovereignty accross the TW strait.

then local politics in TW got in the way really bad. and US seems just couldn’t resist the idea of exploiting a wedge issue.

I don’t disagree. But if we’re talking about such a far-fetched scenario as a US-Taiwan-China war, then any Chinese ballistic missile attack would be met with a similar attack on it.

This is why the whole scenario is bogus, and why a project like the B-1R is simply a tool to scare up political support for some additional military spending.

you must have been hiding in a bunker some where since the early 90s?

those ballistic missiles are conventionally armed and many of them specially designed to take out airfields and bunkers. a quit of number of them. and their forces are trained, equipped, and drilled to specifically for that task for years now. 500 x 1000 lb payload divided by number of your bases, that is how much damage they can do to your infrastructure. and that’s how much ballistic firepower china has at any given moment since late 90s.

add on top of it the plethora of LACMs that bloomed in the late 90s. all of them launched from mobile launchers and for added affect old but updated H-6 platforms. orbiting behind their own air defenses.

how you gonna respond? defense? forget those massed J-7 at you looks like you don’t even have enough PAC missiles let alone missiles on launchers just to deal with the ballistic missiles. offense? good luck tracking down those mobile launchers.

How would they go about doing this? They have an even bigger problem of range, since no Japanese airfields are even with 600 miles of any Chinese ones. Which means, they can muster up a limited attack by a limited number of planes. But they can’t attack both Japanese airfields and Taiwan at the same time (nor would any Japanese airfields with USAF planes on them, be sitting ducks in any such scenario)

.

why would airfields be only allowed attacked with airplanes? :rolleyes:

And even more, somewhere in the back of the head of the American administration, is the fear that if this islamic unrest keeps on for a long time, it may “infect” Saudi Arabia too. And if an insurgency occurs there and the pumps stop pumping oil, we will have apocalyptic scenarios worldwide… Fortunately, the Saudis have one characteristic that may avoid this. Higher income than north african countries.
.

Just contrast the US/EU reaction to troubles in Arabia Penesula Sunnies Monarchy States with a big Shi’ite majority. The Media key word are always stability and the ruling absolute monarchy is always given a sympathetic coat of paint liken them to some progressive elitened ruler. if that’s not enough Iranian specture is always useful remind why these rulers are important… absolute monarchy or not.

So, Gadaffi, poor fellow, has found himself in a very bad timing. While he had fixed relations with EU (including UK after Lockerbie), made energy deals, arms deals (almost got the Rafale!), seemed at last “accepted” as “legitimate leader” by those who were seeing him as terrorist in the past, now he found himself in a position that everyone simply wants this over as soon as possible.

Libya is prob just an spill over effect from Tunnisa and Egypt.
seed was planted when the new silicon valley wiz kids from state department’s undersec for global affair’s office decided to train middle eastern opposition groups for mass organization using social media. And now they can not control the wildfire or even deal with its possible worse case consequences. Such is the incompetence and myopic-ness of these people.
Oh, the rule of unintended consequences.
If Saudi or Bahrain or even Yemen falls, then I would really could see Gates curse out these amatures!

(Civil) War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it!