Each service sets their own standards, so it’s subjective somewhat. Generally not much difference I suspect in aligned countries. But I don’t have anything definitive for you on this one. Just remember mtbf is system specific, your breakdowns take the craft out of the mission.

You calculate mtbf regardless if it’s in the air or sitting on the taxiway.

Sens would be wrong. The Gripen uses maintenance tricks that were incorporated into it that dramatically simplifies turnaround time while also keeping costs down. Man-hours engineered into these tasks really ramp up costs quickly. The Flanker derivatives are unaffordable in countries that have relatively high wages, but is ridiculously inexpensive where there is subsistance income. Another issue that dramatically affects flight hour cost is deferred service. The Tomcat fleet looked twice as expensive projective-wise as it should have been at the end because they were being run into the ground. I bet half the fleet was approaching an unsafe condition.

Edit: damn iPhone interface can be klunky to type

I wouldn’t read too much into that article. Not a thing the chinese are doing wasn’t being done during vietnam by the americans. The truth is these systems become severely limited in certain aspects and are vulnerable in just too many ways to give up manned missions. If the chinese still lag behind in the technology for the manned missions then you know these drone missions are still largely pipe dreams.

I was expecting something more exciting from that music selection. I guess when music builds up in such a dramatic fashion I expect something to get blown up.

I don’t think people realize how well aluminum blocks the IR wavelengths. The key is to cool it, which can simply mean drafting air across it. Engine baffles often simply introduce a hollow shielding space over the engines that is continuously flushed with ambient air to suppress the infrared emissions of hot structures below it. The most advanced ones use an inter-cooler to flush them with cooler-than-ambient air.

cola,

The documents can all be found with some effort. The problem is you do not want to put forth the effort because its a wild goose chase if you are unfamiliar with the target document you are trying to read. It may be frustrating to you now, but if you really want to read these documents then I suggest you figure out the process through which these documents are made and then you will understand where you can obtain them. Most of them are public.