Here’s a picture of a Tornado refuelling an AMX. Note: external pod with hose & drogue.

thats a Italian Tornado and the M-346, not an AMX, Paul.

The fissionable materials is mentioned behind in addition. You fail to notice that the first two sentences are loud and clear.

The Agreement provides a general exception for matters which are deemed to be essential to national security interests. In particular, a Member is not required to furnish any information if it considers disclosure to be contrary to its essential security interests. In addition…

Bingo.

In order to have a lawsuit, you have to have a trial, and you can’t have a trial if matters of national security cannot be disclosed. No one will ever disclose an arms trade contract in court and any plaintiff who does that will lose his reputation, because the core aspect in armstrade is credibility in secrecy.

so you’re suggesting that its perfectly alright for one nation to reverse engineer another nation’s weapons, and that too none less than a fighter jet, just because the contract did not specifically say so?

so henceforth, anyone selling any weapons to China needs to add “DO NOT COPY AND BUILD ON YOUR OWN” clauses to contracts?! do you have any shame at all trying to say that such a ridiculous argument even works in a civilized world where IP is respected?! oh I forgot, we’re referring to China here..IP is for losers as far as China is concerned I guess..national security indeed ! there’s another core aspect to arms trade and that is related to respect of IP- you cannot just copy someone else’s stuff, not pay royalties for that, compete in the same markets that the other nation that sold you the equipment competes in and name it something Chinese for it to become Chinese..

this is blatant cheating, nothing less. and the fact is that in most people’s eyes, actions like this make China a nation to never ever trust.

China starts producing Russian Mi-171 helicopters
10:57 | 12/ 05/ 2008
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080512/107127123.html

MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – A manufacturing plant in southwest China has started to assemble Russian-designed Mi-171 transport helicopters, one of Russia’s key arms exports, the Russian business daily Vedomosti said on Monday.

China plans to build at least 20 helicopters in 2008 with assembly kits supplied by a Russian plant in Ulan-Ude and later increase production capacity to 80 aircraft per year.

“We consider this project as the beginning of a trend to assembly Russian helicopters in China,” the newspaper quoted a source in Oboronprom, which controls Russian Helicopters, a helicopter manufacturing group.

Mi-171 is an export version of the Mi-8 Hip helicopter, which is currently in production at two factories in Kazan and Ulan-Ude, fitted with more powerful turboshaft engines.

According to Vedomosti, the Lantian Helicopter Company, based in Sichuan province, has already received orders worth $42.8 million.

“The Chinese are planning to export [Mi-171] helicopters to Pakistan and Africa, which may hurt Russian exports,” the source said. “In addition, the successful implementation of the project could leave Russian manufacturers short of component parts.”

In 2007, Russian companies only built 120 Mi-171 helicopters, although they had orders for 150 aircraft, due to a shortage of transmissions and rotors, and according to estimates, there are no plans in the future to increase production for these components.

At the same time, some Russian experts believe it is better to allow the Chinese to manufacture helicopters under license rather than sit and wait until China develops its own version, modeled on Russian designs, Vedomosti said.

so now Russian experts fully expect China to reverse engineer and build Russian helicopters as well..:D

The Hawks are on hold for now

By Suman Sharma in New Delhi

THE GOVERNMENT has put on hold the delivery of 14 British- built Advanced Jet Trainer ( AJT) ‘ Hawk’ Mk- 132 after one of the trainer aircraft crashed last month. This is a major setback to the £ 1.1 billion ( Rs 8,800 crore) AJT deal for 66 Hawk AJTs signed by the NDA government in 2004.

Twenty- four of these were be bought off the shelf, 42 were to be made by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited ( HAL), while the rest would have come directly from the UK. Air Officer Maintenance ( AOM), Air Marshal K. M. Rama Sundara had told the ministry, following a visit to the BAE Systems in UK to inspect the aircraft, that most of the parts used in the AJT were “ obsolete” or faulty. This he did before the crash took place and the ministry was deliberating on the “ loopholes”.

Now the defence ministry wants to take up the matter with the British government. According to the MoU signed between New Delhi and the UK for the Hawk contract, “ the Indian government can question the manufacturing company and later take up the matter with the UK government for trouble- free supply and maintenance of spares in equipment”.

The 10 aircraft that have been delivered so far, one of which met with the accident on April 29 at the IAF base in Bidar, were reportedly fitted with old spare parts. Sundara, in his report, said there were serious deficiencies in the spares as well as in some of the assemblies. Sundara, the senior- most officer in Air HQ responsible for maintenance management of all IAF weapon systems and equipment, has pointed out over a dozen flaws in the aircraft spares to the defence minister A. K. Antony. The minister, on his part, has halted the delivery of the remaining aircraft.

The AJT Hawks, which were inducted in the IAF on February 23, remained on the ground till the first week of March. Finally, when they took off IAF officials discovered a slew of snags. HAL, which has already built the first of the remaining 42 Hawks to be produced under licence, has also postponed its induction ceremony after the crash. Former Air chief S. Krishnaswamy was not in favour of grounding the whole fleet for one crash. “For more than 20 years we kept asking for a trainer since the Mig crashes were increasing. I don’t think there is any need to ground the fleet or stop deliveries of the remaining aircraft. We need to find out the reason behind the crash. Is it pilot error or technical failure? The aircraft was flown by an experienced instructor and not a cadet. It’s important to know the problem and take it up with the company.” Another former Air Chief, S. K. Kaul, has a different take. “ If the government decides to ground the fleet or to stop deliveries, it is to ensure that the deficiencies are completely removed,” he said.

this report followed by this clarification from PIB.

Hawk aircraft deliveries to India unaffected
Written on May 12, 2008 – 8:12 pm | by FIDSNS | Indian ministry of Defence clarified that the supply of Hawk aircraft has not been stopped. In fact, two aircraft arrived from UK today, along with large quantities of spares, as per the induction plan. Two more aircraft would arrive in the first week of Jun 08.

After the accident on 29 Apr 08, aircraft were not grounded, but flying was temporarily suspended for carrying out checks to rule out critical system failure especially as the aircraft are under warranty. This is a normal practice followed after any serious accident.

Kh-31A fired from a Su-30MKI.

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Images/Current/Fighters/Su30MKI/SB034-Kh31a.jpg.html

If they fly 10ft above sea level, there is a strong likely hood they will end up closer to the submarines then any vessel above the water.

😉 yes that was meant to be a boast, but Jags are perfectly capable of hugging the sealine and flying just about 50-100 ft. above water throughout, staying below radar detection levels till its too late for the enemy’s warship to do anything. a Jaguar with its superb low-level handling is an ideal platform for such a mission. drafts or gusts of wind at low levels hardly bother the Jaguar at low altitude, unlike some other multi-role aircraft that were’nt designed for this type of mission.

in fact the No.6 Dragons who operate the Jag IMs, train for precisely this type of mission. there was a documentary (must be there on youtube too) where they showed the Jag IMs with Sea Eagles flying close to the water.

but the pic is not dated. and those are the Su-30K/MK Flankers, not the MKIs, and they lacked IFR. so the Su-30Ks could get to Car Nicobar without any refueling ? and were’nt the Su-30K/MKs swapped for new build MKIs ? IFR capable Jag IMs with Sea Eagles are a formidable maritime strike aircraft..zipping along 10 ft ABSL, they could easily get within striking distance of any naval vessel.

READ AGAIN…………..from “The Hindu” India’s Nation Newspaper……..dated Saturday December 1st, 2007.

Official sources said that besides lack of installed thrust there were also niggles with the Tejas airframe, which would come up when the ADA expanded the Tejas’ flight test programme and went in for high angle of attack/ high alpha testing, very low speed trails, carefree manoeuvres and other combat related flying. “The Tejas requires aerodynamic fixes.” But this could further increase its all up weight.

“official sources” coming from Ravi Sharma has zero credibility. of course makes for awesome reading for folks like you.