Originally posted by Vympel
It’s existence is not in question. However, it’s right to exist in it’s present, discriminatory form is … debatable. 🙂

*cough*Grozny*cough*

Nasty cough there I got.

Everybody’s gotta make a living Art and it’s much better than exporting insecurity. 😉

Excellent news Steve. And tell your mole (who you’ve ruthlessly exposed) thanks for me.

Let us know if when the regular Hs make their appearance on the tarmac. BTW, do the TH’s have IFR probe?

Originally posted by Steve Touchdown
All brand-new airframes, Victor. They’ve been manufactured/assembled on the line at Bordeaux-Merignac alongside the 2000-9 versions that are going to the UAE right now.

Thanks, that’s interesting to know. Will the 10 be exact duplicates of the planes already in IAF service or are there any updates?

The IAF will most likely look into upgrading the older stock to the new standards as a way to save money. But again, nothing concrete.

I recall all of them mentioning, at one point or another, that (a) the IAF is interested in increasing the number of sqdns and (b) that there has been some talks regarding the IAF acquiring 126 new aircrafts.

This we knew 2-3 yrs ago. Has any new details come out that make it worthwhile to write new articles? We know nothing more today that we didn’t know 2-3 yrs ago… i.e. IAF wants to increase sqn strength and a possibility of 126 aircraft buy.

It’s the Indian press that rehashes the same story, sometimes word for word, over and over every few months while adding no new info. And once in a while the MoD chimes in and repeats the same thing which the press repeats and all the while no new info comes out… just the same “news” we knew 3 yrs ago.

RAF ordered 44 more Hawks, I’m guessing that they will last well into the 2020s. In that case, the Irkut-BAe tieup could be for a trainer past the Hawk/Mako/Yak-130/etc. gen.

Wasn’t there talk of diverting some of the Tranche 2 Typhoons marked for UK to the Austrian order?

It’s getting curiouser and curiouser…
Using the AIM-9X and the AIM-120 acquisition rounds. No guarantee that they were actually used or if a “dummed” down version of it were used but their presence does add an interesting dimension to the exercises.

For me it’s kinda surprising that the USAF would bring their two frontline missiles to play in the first combat exercises with the IAF.