Well, the boilers seem to be the main problem, not the steam turbines. If the boilers are new and Indian Navy pays necessary attention to quality of boiler water and teams, should work. At least it won’t be worse than De Gaulle.

Agree. Maintenance and care (and staying out of zones with climatic extremes) appears key.

EU and several European governments paid and armed North African dictatorships to hunt refugees.

Transfers of major conventional weapons: sorted by supplier. Deals with deliveries or orders made for year range 2000 to 2010

Source: SIPRI Arms Transfers Database
Information generated: 21 March 2011

Recipient/ Year Year(s) No.
supplier (S) No. Weapon Weapon of order/ of delivered/
or licenser (L) ordered designation description licence deliveries produced Comments

Libya
S: France . . MILAN Anti-tank missile (2007) 2009-2010 (200) Possibly EUR168 m deal; MILAN-3 version
Italy 10 A-109K Light helicopter (2005) 2006-2010 (10) EUR80 m deal; for border patrol
Russia (96) Kh-35 Uran/SS-N-25 Anti-ship missile (2009) $100 m deal; for Tarantul FAC
(2) Project-1241/Tarantul FAC (2009) Project-12418 (Tarantul-5) version)
6 Yak-130 Trainer/combat ac (2010) Delivery 2011-2012
Ukraine (2) An-124/Condor Transport aircraft 2000 2001-2003 2 An-124-100 version; officially delivered to civilian company
(4) DR-76 Gas turbine (2009) For 2 Project-12418 (Tarantul) FAC from Russia
(4) DR-77 Gas turbine (2009) For 2 Project-12418 (Tarantul) FAC from Russia

Recipient/ Year Year(s) No.
supplier (S) No. Weapon Weapon of order/ of delivered/
or licenser (L) ordered designation description licence deliveries produced Comments

Algeria
S: Belarus (25) MiG-29S/Fulcrum-C FGA aircraft (1998) 1999-2002 25 Ex-Belarusian; part of deal incl 6 MiG-29UB delivered from Russia via Belarus
Canada 12 PW-100 Turboprop/turboshaft 2004 2005-2006 (12) For 6 C-295 transport aircraft from Spain; PW-127 version
China 3 Type-363 Air search radar (1983) 1988-2002 3 For 3 Djebel Chenoua FAC produced in Algeria
(25) C-802/CSS-N-8 Anti-ship missile (1999) 2000-2002 (25) For Djebel Chenoua FAC
3 Type-347G Fire control radar (2000) 2000-2002 (3) For 3 Djebel Chenoua FAC produced in Algeria
1 Daxin Training ship (2004) 2006 1 Algerian designation Soummam
(18) WA-021/Type-88 155mm Towed gun (2007) 2010 (18)
Czech Republic (17) L-39Z Albatros Trainer/combat ac 2001 2002-2003 (17) Probably $30 m deal; L-39ZA version; originally produced for Nigeria but never delivered for financial reasons; no. delivered may be 20

Recipient/ Year Year(s) No.
supplier (S) No. Weapon Weapon of order/ of delivered/
or licenser (L) ordered designation description licence deliveries produced Comments

Egypt
S: Austria (4) Camcopter S-100 UAV 2001 2002 (4) Financed by US ‘FMF’ aid
108 M-60A1 Patton-2 Tank 2001 2002 108 Ex-Austrian; $27 m deal
Canada 6 PW-100 Turboprop/turboshaft 2010 For 3 C-295 transport aircraft from Spain
China 40 K-8 Karakorum-8 Trainer/combat ac 2004 2007-2010 (40) K-8E version; assembled from kits in Egypt
Finland 4 Type-205/Osa FAC 2006 2006 4 Ex-Finnish; Osa-2 version; Finnish designation Tuima; possibly for spares only
France (16) Super-530F BVRAAM (1998) 1998-2000 16 Designation uncertain; possibly ex-French
Germany (FRG) 74 G-115 Trainer aircraft 2000 2000-2002 (74) G-115EG version
5 Combattante-2 FAC 2002 2002-2003 5 Ex-FRG Type-148 or Tiger; EUR18 m deal
1 Lueneburg/Type-701 Support ship 2002 2003 1 Ex-FRG
1 Westerwald/Type-760 Support ship 2002 2003 1 Ex-FRG

Recipient/ Year Year(s) No.
supplier (S) No. Weapon Weapon of order/ of delivered/
or licenser (L) ordered designation description licence deliveries produced Comments

Tunisia
S: Germany (FRG) 6 Albatros/Type-143 FAC 2004 2005 6 Ex-FRG; EUR34 m ($43 m) deal; Type-143B version
USA 20 M-48 Chaparral Mobile SAM system 1998 2002 20 Ex-US; aid
600 MIM-72C Chaparral SAM (1998) 2002 600 Ex-US; aid; incl 300 MIM-72E version
1 C-130B Hercules Transport aircraft (2001) 2002 1 Ex-US
(6) M-113 APC (2003) 2003 (6) Ex-US; M-577A2 CP version
(180) BGM-71 TOW Anti-tank missile (2005) 2006 (180)
(15) Bell-205/UH-1H Helicopter 2006 2008-2010 (3) Ex-US; aid; modernized before delivery
2 C-130J-30 Hercules Transport aircraft 2010 Delivery 2013-2014

What are the latest developments on the ex-FFG-8? Is she already in Pakistan?

I presume she’s still in Mayport, Florida, where she was being refitted and where she will be conducting crew training and work-up prior to sailing for Pakistan. (she has had a little accident in port while trial running the engines and got damaged as she slipped her moorings an ran into a pier…)

According to Le Figaro’s sources, Russia has pushed through an important change in the intergovernmental agreement, replacing French “assistance” in technology transfer to Russia with a “guarantee” of technology transfer.

Clearly, french government can’t guarantee what private companies will have to deliver …. hence the term assistance.

The ATD-X will be used as a technology demonstrator and research prototype to determine whether domestic advanced technologies for a fifth generation fighter aircraft are viable, and is a 1/3 size model of a possible full-production aircraft

Length: 14.174 meters (46.50 feet)
Wingspan: 9.099 meters (29.85 feet)
Height: 4.514 meters (14.80 feet)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_ATD-X

If these dimensions are 1/3 of a possible production aircraft, then that’s going to be quite a large aircraft…

Not really. It was the German Kohl government, which pushed the rule that refugees should stay in the EU state, in which they entered the EU – which is in most cases not Germany, but Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain etc. Because the German governments (Kohl, Schröder, Merkel) do not want to accept refugees in Germany, they helped the border states to prevent the refugees to enter the EU by violence. Part of this strategy was the arming and the payments of North African dictatorships – so that they hunt refugees (ignoring human rights, as expected for such regimes).

Yes and do you think that that had primarily to do with north africa? Or possibly also with eastern europe? Or with the fact that people were trying their luck in one euro country after another after another? The arming of noth african countries by far predates any refugee (refugee? don’t you mean illegal economic immigrant) issue. In fact, it predates the EU.

Shal we get back on topic: PLAN news.

I was talking mainly about the German government, but also the Italian, French and Spanish. Actually, I do not know, if the Dutch government supported Gaddafi directly, but indirectly it did it – via the EU. The EU – mostly under pressure of Germany and some other states – paid and armed the North African dictatorships to hunt refugees.

http://www.europa-nu.nl/id/vigac6ki69y3/nieuws/amnesty_heeft_kritiek_op_relatie_eu?ctx=vhk6kiqw1uzk
http://euobserver.com/9/30349

I think Italy is more of the problem…

The foreign policy of the bigger EU states was always the support of what was called “stable states”, with which they could make business. Actually these were brutal dictatorships, but if e.g. Merkel, Sarcosi, Blair etc. talk about dictatorships, they always tend to forget their allies.

Still, not any different than US, Chinese and Soviet/Russian policies for that matter.