China, Pakistan

Kindly publish the hours flown by the Migs of both the countries for everyone’s benefit…..

Here is a description from BR

The Barak 8

The Barak 8 (also called Barak NG) missile is a joint collaboration between the India and Israel to develop an advance SAM for the Indian Navy under a USD $480 million program agreed to in early 2006. This missile will form the basis of a similar system for the Indian Air Force under its MR-SAM (Medium Range-SAM) program.

The slender missile has a range of over 60 Km and incorporates a single stage thrust vectoring solid stage motor optimized for launch from a Vertical Launch System (VLS). Four forward fins near the nosecone and fore lateral fins, akin to short range Air-to-Air missiles, should provide exceptional maneuverability to engage anti-ship missiles and aircrafts. It’s design is optimized to defend against AShM (Anti-Anti Shipping Missile).The missile will use an active seeker for terminal guidance and will be integrated with the EL/M-2248 MF-STAR active conformal phased array ship borne radar (Provided by IAI’s Elta) with support for mid-course updates through an advance datalink

The model of development will be very similar to the model of the Brahmos missile with Rafael of Israel providing the missile and India’s DRDO working on the software and acting as prime contractor. Manufacturing should also be joint collaboration by both countries. Development is expected to take 5 years.

MR-SAM

The MR-SAM program of the IAF will seek to replace the SA-3 GOA vintage with a modern system derived form the Barak 8 missile – currently under joint development with Israel for the Navy. A moratorium of understand for the development was signed between DRDO and IAI in Jan 2007. An additional USD $300 million is embarked for the development of the missile over the cost of development for the Barak 8.

The aerodynamics and possibility the motor of the Barak 8 will be altered to meet the requirements of the IAF. This will also mean an increase in the range of the missile to 70 km. The forward fins of the Barak 8 will be replaced with fins at the mid section and the missile is expected to be slightly longer. Unlike the Barak 8, MR-SAM is primarily an anti-aircraft missile with longer range, thus it sports mid body wings providing a balance between efficient cruise and maneuverability against combat aircrafts. The active seeker and datalink should remain the same. The radar for the system is as yet unidentified.

The total cost is expected to be over USD $2 billion including the cost for a production run of 9 squadrons. Each squadron contains two batteries with multi-mission radar, command and control elements and 3 container-launchers with 8 missiles each in VLS configuration.

Tejas Mk2 will NOT have bigger wings. There will be some small changes to the fuselage to accomodate the changes to the air intake. The main difference will be the new more powerful engine and the new air intakes to accomodate the increased air flow requirements.

Mirage 2000 and Jaguars will be phased by around 2020. MRCA aircraft are to soldier on till 2040 atleast. If India bought Mig35 the inventory would be almost all russian once the mirages and jaguars are phased out.

Now that the Bush Administration has gone out of its way to convince the NSG countries to sign onto the Nuclear deal the chances of the Hornet winning the MRCA deal has gone up tremendously.

They have also issued RFPs for 80 + possible follow on order for another 80 engines to GE 414 and Eurofighter Engines. If either of these win their planes have a chance of wiinning the MRCA. I am inclined to believe that the Americans will not win the MRCA. The latest instance of American obstinence being their demands that India clear any sales of the LCA with them before they will allow Boeing to provide consultancy for the LCA testing. Since the testing does not involve any American parts the Indian Govt is unwilling to give in to American demands.

SOC, I have to agree with Buraidiah here. It should not have been a equal-equal guilty charge.

I have not seen Buraidiah bring anything to the table when a good discussion is going on. All he does is takes an interview with the mindset that it has to be turned into a negative news somehow because it is India specific.

Thats ok if he had taken the interview and said that his interpretation was so and so. But when he starts putting in LCA* (* Limited Capability Aircraft) you have to question his posts. Because he gets away with it, people think they have no choice but to reply to him.

Sure he should be ignored but for how long will he continue to derail threads when a proper discussion is going on? Just when it starts getting interesting Buraidiah will flame and someone will flame back when they should know better.

SOC, apologies, but had to vent.

I have to agree. It seems that Buradiah scours the internet for any negative information on the LCA (whether it is valid and from an official verifable source or not) and immediately posts it here in the hope that someone will react. It is natural that someone or the other will rebut his posts and it turns into a pissing contest which gets the thread shut down and people banned. His behavior is usually considered trolling on most sites and treated as such but he seems to get away with it here.