They actually need more training and higher flying hours You would think that with so much oil and making all the spares themselves, they could pull it off

it may look similar because of the missile cap (triangular), but its actually more related to the Russian hand held sams prior to the Igla…SA-7
Mistral is heavy enuff to need a stand

At any rate, its not 100 M USD – and I’d take the USAF over Defense News anyday, like any service of its caliber (Janes etc), its reportage varies a lot based upon the caliber of the reporter.
Could be more than 1 M USD, but the USAF has deep pockets and they’ll get it passed from an allocation from here or there….in a few weeks time, nobody will even remember it. Plus theres always the liability of the company which messed up- they’d probably have to do work at minimum wages (without profit) if they want to retain defense or LM work.

Some Pakistan Army Aviation videos.

PA AH-1F’s firing Baktar-Shikan ATGM at night (video is from 2002): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6129514441980618102

A short and old (10 plus years) documentary on the History of Pakistan Army Aviation: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7218624610694893225

Excellent!

…including bribery.

These days, the Russians are the best suppliers in terms of available bribes. It is impossible for Mexican officials and officers to extort bribes from American or Western European suppliers.

ROTFL. Which world do you live in?
These days are no different from those days & western arms dealers are no shrinking pansies either.

IAF picture is from ADA PDF at Frontier India so shudnt be fake!

Yea! Sure. Even i don’t have a doubt that brahmos is an excellent system. But you should also take a little glimpse of what Indian analysts say about Pakistani Weapons. With exception of few, who some how trying to justify India’s inefficiency in missile and strategic weapons development and they normally hide behind the crap of Pakistan’s acquiring missiles from third source, others really see Pakistan as an example to follow. I can bet on it. Just little bit of browsing is all you need

You can keep kidding yourselves- the fact is that in every aspect of weapons design and development, India has beaten the Pakistanis or is designing and developing something better. This includes everything from land based radars, to electronic warfare to ships. Pls wake up and smell the reality- your leaders have, they know u cant compete, hence all that about not being India centric. You can order Chinese, or eat at Burger King, but you cant match India’s multi cuisine restaurant (procurement) which has a large India pavilion as well. There are Indian companies doing work which no Pakistani firm does…and till you ramp up education like we did and invest in it over decades, you wont match up & by then we would have moved even further ahead thanks to our present rate of growth and unfettered access to industry. You may spend a lot on imports, but thats hardly “efficient” in the long run as your own people lose out on all that money which wud have otherwise gone into local design and procurement. And please dont bring up the tank program (firmly Norinco) and Missile program (China/NoKO) as any examples.

F-16’s, C-130’s, P-3’s, T-37’s are some platforms that were hit harder due to the sanctions. I am not too sure about the French factor.

But that was not the only reason. Pakistan’s economy was in a very bad situation particularly during the 1998-2000 stage. This couldve been another reason for such reduced flying hours. Its good to know the situation was quickly improved after 2000. Now that they fly to NATO standard.

Plus, its normal for AF’s to reduce flight hours for a certain period of time due to some difficulties. The Russians have done it, so have the Germans at some stage for a few platforms. I read a report by Kenneth Allen that Chinese also reduced flying hours at some stage. What matters is to overcome the situation and bounce back. 🙂

At the same time you folks were still harping on high flight hours – what makes you sure that its 180 hrs now. The PAF chief has quietly said 15 sorties. Without AAR , the bulk of your fleet – ie F7s, will still remain at 30mins average, 45 mins max. Thats the training cycle. So the Chief is in a way, giving a gentle “experiment with the truth”. Not that 150 odd hours a year is bad. Just that it wont be 180 or more, at least not for the F-7s.