Mind you if you slapped USAF roundels on JAS-39 (or Eurofighter or Rafale or JF-17) and every man and his dog will buy it if they can.

Politics, defence relationships are critical to defence procurement and having a “used in USA” sticker counts for a lot (hence F-16 is so widely used).

I’ve read 2018-ish is when last examples are out of flight hours.

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?117906-Polish-Air-Force-future-Su-22s&highlight=Polish+Su-22

Sometimes I wonder if Philippines politicians really work for Philippines interest. But then again if you see the so called ‘democratic’ politicians in many newly democratic nations, you may also see those Politicians really ‘not’ working for their constituent but for whoever the highest bidder will be.

Judging by the way Australian politicians behave (and as a public servant I’ve witnessed enough incompetent political meddling), I’d say they don’t have the best interests of the country at heart either. It’s all about being reelected.

Indonesian political environment turn out not so much different with what played on in Philippines ones, thus some kind of structure being created to minimise to ‘vultures’ politicians medling with defense procurement. One of them is getting ‘free’ second hand defense equipment (like F-16 C/D from US or C-130H from Australia), and ‘camouflage’ the procurement cost as modification costs. That way since it conducted G to G with credible Partner, it will have close to zero chances for the Politicians to get a ‘deal’ with suppliers on modification projects. This deals made huge oppositions from Parliement that see their chances on getting slice of the deal evaporated.

Not ideal, but something must be done to minimise the politicians medling. Perhaps Philippines could try that also.

It’s good Indonesia is developing a process. Past procurement for TNI has been pretty atrocious (e.g. buying a large chunk of the East German Navy wqhich then cost a fortune to upgrade).

why side tracking on Gripen? when the initial plan it self including those FA-50, and more importantly the supporting infrastucture has not even being finalised yet.

They’re looking at buying that old Spanish aircraft carrier too!

The answers to all of this is simple:

1. Incompetence in terms of planning and procurement.
2. Corruption (recently more DoD/military officials) were convicted of corruption.
3. A corrupt political system based on hollow populist statements.

Philippines would probably be run under Chinese rule.

So can anyone provide an update as to how many regiments are still equipped with following types:

Q-5
J-7
J-8

France’s Mirage 2000-5s were upgraded over a decade ago .

From what I understand Indian upgrade will be to what used to be known as Mirage 2000-5 Mk 2 standard (French were Mk 1). This includes more advanced radar (RDY-2), optional HMD and other avionics upgraded. UAE Mirage 2000-9s are basically Mk2s.

Also only 37 French airframes have been upgraded and several of them have been lost.

As for age most Indian Mirage 2000s are roughly same age as French 2000C/-5s, having been delivered in 1980s. I don’t know if Indian ones were flown with same intensity as French ones which are being retired.