it is precisely 2,5 times bigger, with 56 ton mtow compared to 22,6 ton mtow for ch47. mi26 is a huge machine, really a class of its own in the world. I was surprised really that the russians even bothered offering it for this competition, as it seems its role can’t really be utilized decently. Then again, russians simply don’t have a range of helicopters to offer from. It was either mi26 or significantly smaller and thus again unsuited mi17.

Ideally, a 20-30 ton helicopter would serve the russians pretty well, for export as well as for russian army use. There was talk about russo-chinese project on a 30 ton helicopters, perhaps something will come out of that within a few years.

has there been any clear images of torpedo tubes on yasen class? or an official report about its torpedo tubes?

I am asking this because there is a bunch of different and conflicting data concerning the tubes on the internet. Some say there are 6 650mm tubes and 4 533mm tubes. Some say there are 4 and 4 tubes. Some say 6 and 2. Some even say there are just four 533mm tubes.

I am not looking for another baseless claim, I would like a photo or official document which can settle this question once and for all. Does such a thing exist?

i think they waited with the ship itself for some time as the air wing wouldnt be ready. if one remembers, refurbishment of varyag started around 2005 or so. at the same time talks with russia concerning su33 sale went on, probably fell apart in 2008., when all the hoopla about illegal j11b started and media reported on the su33 sale not going through in early 2009., though realistically chinese must’ve known it wouldn’t go through even a year earlier, if not more.

Around 2008, incidentally, work on varyag slowed down. there was like a two year hiatus during which very little was done. then a few years later suddenly we have j15 prototype and refurbishment of varyag continuing.

To me it is clear the ship waited for j15 programme. If there wasn’t for the broken su33 sale we’d probably see the entire program being finished 2 years earlier.

yes, but why didn’t it happen? what were the reason behind such decision?

That croatian gripen buy is just a distant possibility. Croatian government has close to zero money for such a buy in the next several years, so the only option would be to take out a loan for pretty much the entire cost of the purchase. That is on top of already huge debt the country has, which is just growing. Before this offer came to light, it was said some 20 million euros was total budget Croatian air force can spend on new stuff – be it refurbishing existing obsolete migs or buying second hand unmodernized migs from another country. 20 to 500 million euros is quite a jump.

Politically, i don’t see such a deal going through, as the country’s finances are going toward Greece scenario and there would be massive political fallout over such a decision. The government is asking everyone to save on unnecesarry spending, it is cutting jobs and wages and then it is supposed to be hypocritical enough to spend hundreds of millions of euros on a fighter buy, even if part of that value will be returned to the country within 10 or so years?

Sure, offset sounds great but without published details it is not very relevant. What value multiplier would be used in offset arrangement? 2x? 5x? Makes a huge difference. What time period would be used? Influx of 200 million euros of money by 2014. or little by little until 2020. is again a huge difference. What sort of guarantee and penalties will be offered in the deal, if the actual investments don’t meet the ones mentioned in the contract?

i just hope, if the deal goes through, the companies will pick a new combined name: BEADS 😀

so far india has 15 or 16 mig29k, with 29 or 30 more to be delivered. 24 are to be delivered to russian navy and some dozen or so more planes are yet undelivered to other customers. That’s some 65-70 planes to be produced in second half of 2012, 2013 and beginning of 2014.

Granted, i believe such a ramp up, up to 36 planes a year, would not be made if there weren’t guarantees for further buys. That may come from the indians (not likely, in my opinion), russian air force (possible but it’s hard to tell when it will happen) and third countries (that one is a given, though overall numbers are probably going to remain low, half a dozen to a dozen planes produced each year)