They have just received the IL-38SD , it would atleast take a year and few exercise to get a good idea of the new equipment.

u didn’t get me yaar …..

its not that the Sea Dragon suite got installed into the a/c and it fled to India, but there are some tests thats gets underway (which will be of prescribed time period/hours) for checking the installed on-boards systems, its performance etc etc … and these are inturn meant to confirm to the customer that the specified spec in the d_o_t_t_e_d lines have been met, piror to the delivery ….. its after these conditions are met that the customer takes delivery of the same ….

It was on 17th Jan that the Press release came of the IL-38SDs, but i think it came to India earlier ….. also, as u know, the IL-38s used to carry out 8-12 hr missions and so will it be the case with the IL-38 SDs. So if we take that the SD have been in air atleast thrice a week since 17th January, it will ad up to atleast 6 days by the end of January. Which will give us a figure of atleast 50 hrs …. and I believe its good enough a flying time to judge the systems onboard. The case of the MTBF doesn’t count (as of now) as what we are solely looking to the performance factor of the on-board systems, aka the radar, electro-optical stuff, on-board procesing, cooling etc etc … So its definetely that the Indian Navy got a good feedback from those mission profile and I won’t be surprised, if in the future the IN indeed accept the Russian proposal to upgrade the Tu-142s to the – Gold – standard that the Russians are offering.

Also, they participated in the IFR 2006 off the Vishakapatan coast and they wud have picked up for sure not less than 60 ships and wud have got a real chance to see the radar’s discrimination ability, resolution etc etc …. its not to say that, one set defines it all, but they definetely did get time to get the time to have a feel of the syetsm in ‘theatres’ ….

It’s been said that one Tu-142 have been upgraded with the Isreali system and certainly it wud have given them a chance to compare the brochure/marketing performance of the these two upgrades to their actual ‘theatre’ performance …

Do note that the IN came out with the rejection of the P-3C orions only after January 31 (if am not wrong) with the press release being on Feb 4 (?) which means they waited for initial feedback from the IL-38SDs. And since the preliminary feedback was satisfactory (hopefully!) they finally made up their mind to show P-3C Orions the proper door (!) ….

It’s also good that the P-3C Orions got kicked out, as it wud have meant addition unwanted logistics and investment … but it might also mean the end of the pipedream for HAL of servicing the P-3C Orions which the yanks had offered, just in the hope of clinching the Indian navy’s contract …… I hope Indian Navy indeed go in for 8-12 more IL-38s to agument their fleet levels and these certainly can come from the Russian stocks provided Russia is willing to part with those …

But all along, i’m waiting for another Atlantique kinda incident involving the P-3C … now we have got more than 10 – confirmed – targets for either the MiG-21s or MiG-29s … but surely I’d love to see the Interceptor’s getting ‘marked’ with the Aussie P-3Cs as well, as they have for long palyed with the IN ….. maybe they are destined for the Su-30s stationed at Andaman & Nicobar. I will look forward and pray for such a ‘date’ …

I believe the Israel upgrade was not a comprehensive one as the IL-38 had gone through , Think its was radar and some electronic stuff.

i don get the point of saying that, the isreali upgrade was not a comprehensive upgrade …. electronically speaking, it has to be. If not, there was no point in wasting the tax-payers money just to fill the pockets of the Isreali’s …. as for the weapons capablity or the transofrming the platform, its just pathetic compared to what Russia offered or atleast as to what all they have in their kitty …

No point in supporting the Junta Regiem of Burma.

so they were indeed dumb enough to support the IA’s operations which was carried out last year to flush out the militants … really fine!

I believe one of the reasons the israeli upgrade was put off due to agreement signed with russia that required russian approval (licensing fees) for upgrade of any russian platform by a foreign vendor.

can u mention any other suppier who have let others who have been so much accomodating?? … its the chapos inside the establishment glued to Isreal thats making these stuffs …. even the BJPs recent statement on Iran issue wud make anyone understand who issued that Statement …

5500kg??? Since when? all commonly available sources point at 4000-4500kg, would be awesome news if true. Makes the MiG35 a true multirole a/c with a superb strike capability.

Regards,
Uss novice.

unfortunetaly even the RAC-MiGs site puts the figure at 4,500 Kg ….

MiG-29M2 have a weapons load of 6,500 Kg and thats what MiG-35 will also be having as its weapons payload capablity, though I’d love to c it getting increased. The internal fuel load of M2 was like 5,600 Kg, so a single seater will be able to accomodate a bit more …. but again,I’d love to c it cross the 6,000 kg mark.

The naval variant i.e. the MiG-29K have a reduced weapons load of 5,500 kg and an internal fuel load of 5,100 kg.

Blackcat , even the official Mig website and Janes states the Weapon carrying capability of Mig-35 is 4,500Kg

and thats what the pitiest part to the whole thing ….

but u ask the guys over mail, Jana will reply quoting the designer that its indeed 6,500 Kg ….

The SMT-II or later-on have the weapons payload capablity being increased to 5,500 Kg and the internal fuel being increased to 5,500 + Kg ….

Bars-29 is said to be an AESA ….. from the counting that i made for 68 active T/R elements on the Epolet-A, based on its physical chara, i have a figure of 744 active T/R elements for the Bars-29 …. i’ll post the number of elements in each row some other time…. the array have got 36 rows from top to bottom …

And since the Epolet-A and Bars-29 are from the NIIPs stable, these might be using the same T/R modules. From the NIIPs site, they say their unit output power is higher than their western counterparts … but then the spec displayed for the Bars-29 doesn’t backup it as an AESA where as the Zhuk-MFE outstrips the same by a big margin.

whats this whole fuss abt ….. i don get ….

As for the engine stuff is concerned AFAIK, HAL is to produce the said number (920) of AL-31 FP engines for the 140 x Su-30 MKI.

And Su-30MKI is rated for 6,000 hrs flying hours. The AL-31FP is rated for a TTL of 2,000 hrs. So that makes 6 x AL-31FPs for a Sukhoi in its whole life time. With some more spare for replacing the engines that may need replacements.

Now doin some math we get that figure as 190 x 6 = 1140 x AL-31FP thats need for the whole 190 x Su-30MKI. But we are making just 920 x AL-31FPs.

This means –

1) A total of 220 x AL-31FPs came along with 32 x Su-30MKI (of differ phases) from Russia. (6 per a/c for 6,000 hrs flting time) In this 32 x Su-30MKI wud need 192 x AL-31FPs and the rest (28) cud be meant as replacement for any premature loss/wartime losses etc etc.

2) It also means that of of 920 x AL-31FPs that HAL is making, only 840 is needed for 140 x Su-30MKI and the rest (80) is meant as as extras.

.

K, if u guys have not yeat gone thru this can go now …..

Su-27IBs in their ASW role will be able to carry upto 72 sonobouysin their conformal weapons bay underneath theiir belly 😎

as for the other thread on the same, its here ….

Also, if u guys have not downloaded this, go & do it, its a superb video of Su-33. Include, Kuzentzov, missile firing etc etc …. the music is simply good and and makes it better with the background of the thundering engines

Su-33

Questions? There’s gonna be a test? Damn I need to cram. There’s about 147 Flanker variants out there!! 😀

thats a basic stuff u need to get into Duffey OKB 🙂

Also, if u guys have not downloaded this, go & do it, its a superb video of Su-33. Include, Kuzentzov, missile firing etc etc …. the music is simply good and and makes it better with the background of the thundering engines

Su-33