Australia donates 4 C-130s to Indonesia

Isn’t standard operating procedure to ditch drop tanks when enganging in A2A?

So one would expect both Eurofighter and F-22 to not have drop tanks.

It’s more about what does “slicked off” mean.

To be honest I don’t view these pilot’s accounts as anything other that propaganda.

After all if every soldier’s claims were true, Germany would’ve exclusively fielded Tiger tanks in WWII.

So what happens to the Eurofighter once you’ve added some weapons to it?

One assumes fuel tanks would be jettisoned in a combat situation but jettisoning missiles to achieve performance for a dogfight does not seem smart. 😀

I don’t understand the training without weapons stores? After all isn’t the purpose of training to reflect real life and thus prepare the pilots for actual combat?

It seems the Eurofighters were almost set up purely for Red Aggressor role ala the US Navy’s old F-16Ns!

Kuwait has operated Lightning, Strikemaster, Mirage F.1, A-4, Hawk & F-18C/D.

Yet since 1991 they have generally acquired US gear.

However all’s fair in love and defence procurement. :p

you cannot measure UK corruption on same standards as Nigeria.
UK system is much more sophisticated. see total debt to gdp.

Western corruption is inbuilt and often legal – eg political donations to political parties.

I used to work in stock broking and corruption came in the form of junkets. E.g. Company X wants analysts to mark it as a “buy.” So they hold an all expenses paid information seminar at swanky resorts.

I now work in health and doctors are bribed to promote certain drugs by similar means – all expenses paid training/seminars/junkets, provision of free stationary and other supplies etc etc. They also are very nepotistic.

Though an old uni lecturer of mine did state that when he worked in France in the 1980s, old fashioned envelopes of cash were a necessity when tendering for acquisition contracts. And it was very important to bribe secretaries, or they wouldn’t forward your correspondences and communications.

Corruption is a part of human nature.

What missiles do Syrians have that can shoot out to (13nm) 22.2 km?

SA-2: 28 nm/45 km
SA-3 22 nm/35 km
SA-5: 190 m/300 km
SA-6: 12-15 nm/20-24km (would struggle unless deployed on coast).

Nearly all these missiles are radar guided so would require a radar to lock on. Did the second RF-4E or other Turkish assets detect a radar activation?

According to http://geimint.blogspot.com.au/2007/09/syrian-sam-network.html coverage is as follows.

These are SA-2 and SA-3 sites.

However how many are still active? We know of one battery defecting to the rebels.

It could well be dependent on Turkish domestic situation.

Though I don’t think there will be war. Yanks and most of Europe’s not too keen on war. And Turkey lacks many capabilities needed for a successful air campaign.

Mind you Hague might push for it – that man’s a warmongerer and a half.

Apparently Turkey is “turning to NATO.”

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFBRE84S0P320120625

Don’t know if this means they’re invoking Article 5.

The hilarious thing is that in the same artilce, it talks about Turks bombing Kurds in Iraq:

As if to underline its military reach, Turkey’s military announced that over the last three days it had carried out air strikes in northern Iraq against nine bases for Kurdish militants fighting for greater autonomy in south-eastern Turkey.

So according to Mrs Clinton, it’s ok for Turks to violate Iraqi sovereignty but not ok for Syrians to fire at jets violating Syrian sovereignty.