Sounds right. I had allways wondered why that was. Interesting that they did operate A-7s off them, I assume that was because the A-4s were being phased out of service with the Navy as fronline attackers.

However, I don’t recall the Italians removing Otomat AShM, Aspide SAMs, Dardo’s, or triple asw tubes from the Garibaldi to make room for more AC.

The scrapping of the Kievs is more a result of CCCP collapse than a reflection on the design. The Indian Navy needed a carrier replacement, which could fly something other than Harrier – which would eventually phase out with at that time no guarantee of a suitable VSTOL jet replacement coming available, hence the need for a flight deck modification on the Gorshkov.

With the Kuz, noticed the planned switch to Mig29K, a smaller AC? They want more wings on board, which means also more support. What modern replacement would there be for the installed AShM? Would it need to be smack in the center of the flight deck?

I saw in last months “Air Forces Monthly” that the Italians have removed the Otomats from the Garibaldi in order to expand the flight deck.

because the Chinese industry prefer to copy the Super Frelon series instead of the Mi-8 as I already mentioned before. When they have a chance, they have a tendency to prefer copying French aviation products. They copy flankers simply because they have no Mirage 2000 or Rafale. However as Foxmulder stated, they were once heavily interested in the M2k itself.

Well…..the Republic of China AirForce DOES operate the M2k-5.:D

It seems that a WHOLE lot of stock is placed in the “problem” that weapons integration is a big sticking point.

Mirage 4000 would have made an interesting Mirage IV replacement……..but, as allways, its was a question of money.

The Rafale may not win against the F-16 Block 52+ every time but it’ll do it enough times to turn the course of a war.

A valid opinion….but not really accurate at all.

That’s because you’re looking at numbers on paper rather than looking at how real wars (and fights in general) tend to pan out. Equipment is important, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. What plane is better isn’t going to make much of a difference in a war between India and Pakistan. Hopefully we won’t have to see how things work out in reality, it’s never pretty. The other reason you may not follow the logic of course is that it you don’t want to hear anything that you don’t like, shocking 😎

Partially that, yes, but also the simple fact that the Indians will be the majority force and will be having to take more care not to blast each other. For the Pakistanis, assuming they are losing from the outset, the stakes are much higher and so risks are worth taking, which may or may not pay off.

Well said.

Personal preference.