Originally posted by bluey67
Germany planning major cuts

As Washington attempts to restructure its forces in Germany, Berlin is also pushing forward with an overhaul of its own military. German media on Saturday reported that German Defense Minister Peter Struck will announce massive cuts to the Bundeswehr’s budget next week.

Citing senior Bundeswehr sources, several newspapers and magazines reported Struck plans to lop some €25 billion ($32 billion) off the military’s procurement and investment budget in the coming decade. A number of large equipment orders are likely to be affected by the decision.

According to Die Welt and Handelsblatt newspapers, Germany will slash orders for a multi-role armored vehicle being developed by Germany’s Rheinmetall AG and Britain’s GKN to 200 from the 1,100 originally intended.

The government is also likely to cuts the number of NH 90 transport helicopters and Tiger combat helicopters from European aerospace firm EADS Eurocopter unit. A planned third order Eurofighter jets could also be dramatically reduced.

Struck on Saturday declined to comment on the reports, but in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper due to be published Sunday he said he had informed military commanders that the Bundeswehr budget was unlikely to be spared the government’s spending cuts.

“In times when we are making cuts across the board for social programs, we can’t just keep spending more on the Bundeswehr,” he told the newspaper.

http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_1083626_1_A,00.html

Social programs are good..but the consequences of such action could very well affect any Multi-national participation with Germany in any future (and current) military projects, seeing as how their government has been rather unreliable (especially in the EF program). Perhaps countries will be even more reluctant to partner up with EADS MAKO now 🙁

Originally posted by acfan2003
What about a twin-engined FC-1/JF-17?

2x8500kg for a light plane should provide super-cruise ability! Am I wrong here?

Does anyone know the max dry thrust of a RD33 type engine?

Say each rd33 maximum dry thrust is 4250. Two of these engines on a FC1 would equal 8500, the equivalent on full after burner!

FC1 with super cruise would be super cool.

you don’t want to put two RD-33’s on the FC-1, it’s going to suck up more fuel and limit it’s range, something all fighters of this class and size, are limited on in the first place.

Originally posted by ELP
I believe part of it is real need and sometimes part of it is percieved need. Probably a good choice for India. I do however think then when the idea of a strike jet comes up that thinking that it has to be a two seater shouldn’t be the first tool out of the bag. Again depending on your mission profiles, interdiction / high profile strike work has been done with single seat jets. F-18s, F-16s, F-117s have done the work. Get the right multi-mission avionics in a Flanker, and some good cheap all weather kits for dumb iron, Use two single seaters, one buddy lases from high altitude while the other makes the bomb run, and other types of PGMs, etc. etc. etc. Plus you are putting less crew at risk and in cases where your air force can do it with one person instead of a two place, a fringe benefit is that you are saving money too.

So anyway, in short, not every strike solution requires a 2 seater. And if it was me, most strike solutions wouldn’t use a two seater. The one situation I would prefer a two seater would be for doing FAC work like the F-18F. It sets up targets in coordination with a G-FAC and hands those targets off to a train of single seaters as they show up.

Now that I think about it..perhaps it could be true since the JSF is a one seater, operating in roles where the previous generation used two.

However i also believe Haveblue has a point.. it could be more of a psychological thing.. having some one right next to you, some one you can talk, work with, and most likely, to have some one physically present to see if your work is being done.

I’ve been in a couple, including the Northridge Earthquake that hit california. At the time it struck..it was time for bed, and I was using the bathroom. You could imagine my surprise and frustration as I pondered “shuold I run out like this or wait and finish?”

I went to check Ken Duffey’s site, and there’s no Su-27SM.. but based on the description you guys posted..it sounds awfully like the Su-27SKU

here’s some pics from Ken Duffey’s site

http://www.duffeyk.fsnet.co.uk/

cockpit lay out looks alot like the MKK with the addition of the 3rd, and smaller MFD in the center

Rafale or the F-15E, one was designed to replace Super Entendards and Jaguars, while the other has built up alot of experience and a great combat record. Neither the Rafale or the Typhoon currently has full A2G capabilities, but the Rafale is closer to it (based on recent tests) and has more hard points to carry them and could carry them farther than the Typhoon. and we know the F-15E’s capabilities and range are good, especially it’s weapons selection.

Originally posted by phrozenflame
oh c’mon..its 95 million dollars to be precise…

http://forum.airforces.info/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18754

if it is around the price all my indian freinds are claiming ~50 mil..then why in the hell in the world Mirage 2k is being still promoted?? why didnt UAE go for Rafale?? is dassault shooting at its own feet by promoting two aircrafts with same price and one of the aircraft arguebly (mind the spellings plz) significantly inferior to other?? either ppl at dassualt are having weed or someone over here.

because they want to keep the Assembly line for the Mirage 2000 series running :rolleyes: