You would laugh and may be cry if you learned how much $$$ the whole “10” series project were given in Chinese defence establishment.
you can’t do anything without $$$, but you can’t solve every problem with $$$.

Dont think much $$$ was required for development when the plane was designed by the Israeli’s.

So india is buying the block III apaches, but are these from the 900 or so that are going to be re-engineered for the US Army or are these fresh from the factory? the russian helos for the same number would have cost 600million as apposed to 1.4 billion,big difference there.

Also will india get the new MMW radar with the greater range or radar from the older block II apaches?

Its brand new build Block III airframes with the latest block III MMW radar and remaining gadgets.

Only certain sensitive communication equipment would not be included since India did not sign up to the comm standard agreements with US.

Why will spare parts be a major issue as time goes on? Machinery is all new.

20 years old, but not much of it was spent at sea, plus the modernization is a thorough reconstruction. Basically a new ship at this point.

India has always had an issue with russian spare parts post cold war and given the long time frame some of the parts may go out of production or the sub-contractor may go out of business. Who knows… anything can happen.

Whats for certain is that spare parts supplies from Russia are dodgy.

About it being a new ship, well we really dont know what has been replaced. The base hull is over 20 years old and had been rusting away under poor (or non-existing) maintenance.

RDY-3 is part of the uppgrade will probably have better ranges than earlier RDY radars. But have seen on some sites that is have smaller ranges than RDY-2….

RDY-3 is a downgrade as compared to the RDY-2.

The higher number monicker is just used for marketing purposes.

The overpriced upgraded Indian M2Ks will have RDY-2s.

Horses for courses. “Superior” is a relative term, & meaningless unless one specifies the context. If you don’t have a big deck with arresting gear on it, an F-35B is infinitely superior to an F-35C.

If you saw the previous context of the message you would have noticed i meant it for big deck CATOBAR carriers.

IN is moving towards CATOBAR carriers after Vik and IAC 1. Thus acquisition of fighters should be considered for IAC 2 onwards – which is anyway still on the drawing board.

if India did go for an F-35, wouldn’t the F-35B B better?
it could be used on the Vikramaditya and other non-catapult equipped carriers.

Like quad mentioned, F35 C is superior to the F35 B model. Given that IN plans for full fledged CATOBAR carrier in future, the C model makes a lot more sense.

As for Vikramaditya, well its probably got a life-span of some 25~30 years max. That period could be covered well by the IN Mig-29Ks.

IN mig 29k landing on Adm Kuz

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QKkSf03VuFY/TTgkEtvsvDI/AAAAAAAAEkE/tsN7kMYK0ZA/s1600/DSC_0488.JPG

Lol, what a silly thread.