Won’t put your money where your mouth is, eh? 😀

Well I have never found paper that tasty so I dont see the point.:D

I don’t know how they could back out now………..:rolleyes:

With the greatest of ease.:(

I hope the Times is right Rob but we have been here before.

Lets hope it isn’t another fudge (like the previous split development plan).

Again, +1 on that, reports saying ‘in the coming weeks’ have been appearing for years. The very fact that they have now reached 70,000 tonnes just adds further concern to their political survival as it means costs have gone up and that they have become even bigger cancellation targets.

I suspect something is a little fishy here. The pic where you see the KJ-2000 outside in yellow primer shows a background of coneferous forest (pine and fir etc,.) This indicates where this is happening is somewhere in the north of China.

There are two places pretty on the northern side that is capable of building large transports and multi-engined aircraft. One is the Shanxi aircraft company in Shaanxi province. They make the Y-8 aircraft, and very likely the AEW, ECM and C31 aircraft based on the Y-8 including the balance beam plane. So this place is a good candidate. Except that this province is at the door step of the Silk Road, so its more arid and desert like.

The other is Harbin AC, which also makes Z-9 helos. Harbin AC used to make H-6s, aka Tu-16s. The forests you see is similar to the growth you see in southern Siberia. Harbin is a city close to the Russian Siberian border, near the Amur river. And close to the same border is the city of Komsomolsk un Amur. In this city KnAAPO is one of the major manufacturing centers for Sukhoi, and here, the Su-27SK, the J-11 kits and the Su-30MKK were all built for China. Furthermore, KnAAPO is also a production center for Beriev, which is the one responsible for the A-50 Mainstay.

If something is going on, its not a stretch to have the parts trucked. shipped or railed from the Russian side of the Amur river to the Chinese side.

The problem with trucking stuff across the Amur is that there is a distinct lack of bridges.;)

Nice pictures.

Also, can anyone here confirm that the Su-30MKI has 3D thrust vectoring (like the MiG-35)? I have seen sources that says it has 3D TVC and others say it has 2D TVC

EDIT: nevermind, I answered my own question. It has 2D nozzles rotated 30 degrees off-center, to give a pseudo-3D effect. so i guess it is pseudo-3d, huh…

IIRC its a hybrid, The nozzles are capable of moving on an X axis, combined with the canards it provides considerably improved performance but it is not as an effective solution as the Mig-35’s and Su-35’s true 3D TVC which allows for the elimination of the canards.

Again, I see no need what so ever for the MMRCA program. None of the contenders offer any technology that is not already available to India through simply offering tenders for for an MLU of the flanker fleet, or just cooperation with international companys. Most of the viable contenders are twin engines so will likely cost nearly as much as the flankers to run, the added cost of introducing yet another type in to the inventory will also affect that. Even at a fly away cost most are just as expensive as the MKI.

If money realy is an issue then just do as the other posters have suggested and do a split purchase between the MKI and the LCA. This obsession the IAF has with accumulating as many different types of combat aircraft as possible is realy not healthy.

I am not sure about trolling here.

I am appalled that you should consider it harmless fun. It is not, it is an old trick but nonetheless as cruel as can be.

Consider that this may be only the thin end of the wedge, it doesn’t take much thought to appreciate that this could be used on the unwitting native populations of the occupied territories and thus be a war crime in the making. Hell this could already have happened.

With sealords like you who needs crazy marines.

Maybe you could elaborate your logic here and explain how one US marine frightening a goat with a childish prank equates to US troops torturing Afghan civilians.:rolleyes: