Fed, I am sorry.

Wan, I am sorry.

There I did it all for you, I am sorry that I butted in but this has been a respectable forum for a very long time. Wan you are a good guy, you always have been. Fed, you have been good too, I guess we all make mistakes and the difference on this forum to the other forums is that we forgive and forget (that is we forgive each other and forget what we are forgiving them for 😉 ).

Fed: MAte these are nice pics and I am honoured that you chose to post them so that I and the rest could have a look at your handy work. Look at those nasty Sea Zeniths on the Turkish vessel, man we got gipped when we didn’t go for those. They have a greater field of coverage than the Phalanx system (IIRC -60*:+127*). As for Aradu, yes she has been in the wars and not come out well, but then again years of greed and corruption in Nigeria have taken their toll on all the military forces not just this ship, if you ask me, it is a credit to the Nigerian navy that they got her there in one piece! Oh and you should have looked at the second pic closer mate, you can see the Nigerian vessels name on the gangway leading from the aft deck of ANZAC 😉 hehehehe.

What happened in the first pic? Did the sun come out just at the wrong time?

Isnt Australia complaining about the underpowered engines of Tigre? I read some people are really pissed off and complain that it will cost extra hundred million €s to bring the chopers to the standards requested by army.

We are having teething problems with them yes, for some reason they aren’t performing as expected (And these are the machines from France). Our own built ones are not suffering at all. Mind you only two examples of the Aussie built ones have finished their tests and been accepted (005 and 006), others are working their way through the program now.

Oh and Beleg, mate down here we use $, not € 😉

Impi: Thanks mate, it’s only because I really can’t afford (well more like I can’t justify the $20+ over the counter price) the latest version of AFM that I am forced go back over older issues thus they remain fore front in my mind.

The Ka-54 (formerly the Ergodan or Ka-50-2) was dropped because the Russians refused to play the Turkish game of saying one is the winner in order to lower the bid of the other design that they really wanted, this is why the American’s sued the Turkish government and then refused to bid in the new competition (seriously who can blame them)?

The Mungusta was dropped mainly because of very similar reasons to why Australia dropped it during the Air 87 competition- Too small with very limited growth potential.

The AH-2 is a huge beast of an attack helo, it’s equivilant in the fighter world would have to be the Tu-128, against it’s competitors, it is massive.

The Tiger is the new kid on the block and with it’s advanced composit contruction and airframe make it a very sought after machine. Australia is already planing on fitting our 22 (and any others we might be buying soon) with MMW Radar giving it a capability just above a Lowgbow. What I find really interesting with the Tiger is the fact that the pilot sits in front and the WSO behind, to me that just makes sence!

I’m going to assume that by Ka-54 you mean Ka-50-2… Unless I missed another one of those Russian re-designation events that seem to happen every time I turn my back.

Ink: mate I guess you did 😉 The Ka-50-2 was starting to get confused with the Ka-52 so they decided to call it the Ka-54 keeping it in line with the current designation status. We had a thread about that about a year ago, look it up 😉

What ever happened to the Ka-52 and Ka-54? I remember hearing something about the Ka-54 again being looked at for the Turkish Army since no American companies had re-entered the new attack helo competition there after what happened with the AH-1Z fiasco.