There are some – officially denied – rumors here in Russia about plans to put Tu-160 and Tu-95 onto Cuba. As a response to the Czech/Polish NMD components.

Wouldn’t make terribly much sense. Tu-22M3 would be the better choice, I think.

But it’s an interesting scenario, because the U.S. air defense all along the south-eastern seaboard and the Gulf coast would have to be strengthened. The Eglin Raptors with a real mission?

In any case it would be a major escalation, putting nuclear capable assets into the Americas.

Opinions?

That is a conspiracy by neocons that want to have more F-22’s ordered.
Any other explanation wouldn’t make sense at all.

To form a real threat to the USA the Russians have to come up with more than terribly outdated Tu-22M and the few Tu-160. The Cuban airspace is a door wide open for the USAF anyways. They can go there any time and anywhere without having to fear too much trouble.

It was WVR. There were no BVR engagements.

Which is obvious giving the circumstances: with the Ethopians having the majority of aircraft in the air, the chance of killing own aircraft when firing at radar contacts is high. Thus, even if radar homing missiles were used, they engagements most likely classify as WVR.

But the C-141 was the first jet propelled military transport. For its time revolutionary. It increased the effectiveness of air transport by a fair margin due to its speed and range. Of course, the cargo bay was limited. But by the technology nothing was possible in the early and mid 60ies. A larger cargo bay means more payload capability, requiring larger take-off weights and more thrust. Given the limited engines, it would have been a 6 to 8 engine monster (compare to early Galaxy (HLX) studies).

The C-141 was exactly what was feasible at that time without changing the technological scope. The aircraft it replaced (C-124) was inferior by a wide margin.

I don’t know why some of you derailed this thread.

I think it is a typo error from a journalist (mistaking it for Mig-29). But it would make sense. Russia has a large number of stored Mig-27s (and Mig-23s and Su-22s) in flyable condition.

With minimal refurbishing they can still do a good job.

It can be a very good deal for many airforces around the world to acquire these aircraft (instead of uber-expensive shiny new ones). The Russians would probably transfer them for free and charge only for modernization/refurbishment.

I don’t see why some of you here see it as a weird acquisition.

If I had a war coming I would agree. But for strategic long term air force upgrades the MiGs are of no use. To specialized and still not truly effective. The would be an interim solution.
Serbia would go for new MiG-29 or Saab Gripen and get 24 of them or so, but that would require Serbia to become financially more healthy. A couple of years in the future, maybe. Even in the Balkans War the Air Force has proved to be a largely useless asset, just added a very convenient target on the NATO list (and something that can be taken out using standard NATO thinking).

IOC F-15E: 1988
IOC Su-34: 2008

Timewise like comparing the BF-109 versus the F-104.

The F-15 did replace the F-4 with a useful BVR capability for a time scale the AIM-120 was not at hand. With the MiG-23MF/R-23 the dominance of the F-4/AIM-7 was gone. 😉

You mean all MiG-23 variants starting from the M I guess, so basically:
M/MF
ML/MLD

MF was the “brother nation’s” version of the M if I am not mistaken.

Really? Phazotron’s Zhuk AE demonstrated various A2G modes to an Indian aviation journalist during AeroIndia’07.

It was a demonstrator showcasing some characteristics. Not that the radar is bad or incapable of principally doing it, but it is not yet fielded in an operational manner. Damn, I think the only true AESA currently flying in the F-22 and F-18, and that not since long.

4 years is sufficient time for aerodynamic testing. Considering the automation, information technologies and money available. Su-27 is aerodynamically far more complex than F-15/F-16. Just developing something with 9.4 ton fuel capacity and maneourability requirements.

Guess what: for the A380 we needed only 18 month between first flight and certification, although it has more than 150t of internal fuel and more processing power on board than the entire first 400 MiG-29 combined.
So if Airbus would make the PAK-FA, and it has less than 8t of internal fuel, we could do it just over a month.

That was: *-logic.