Great article by Air Commodore Abdus Sattar Alvi and his experiance flying against the Israelis in 1973

Very interesting Mountain, thanks for sharing!

LIMA: Malaysian firm proposes MiG-29 upgrade

There a couple of interesting things about the upgrade. Is the extra fuel tank conformal? As far as I understand conformal tanks can be removed on the ground, but that extra tank in the back of the cockpit looks fixed to me. The article then states:

In addition, the aircraft would have greater commonality with Malaysia’s fleet of Su-30MKMs. The work would be done in Malaysia under licence from RAC MiG.

Su-30MKM are based on Su-30MKI, which will undergo a deep modernization soon. Is this really an advantage if we consider Su-30MKM was designed and introduced a decade ago?

Years ago Tikhomirov developed BARS-29 for MiG-29. This model was based on the N001M BARS used by Su-30MKI, but did not find any clients. Indian MiG-29K were sold with Zhuk models, and the same with SMT. Was there a possibility for India to acquire Mig-29k with BARS-29 for logistics reasons? Or there were other reasons. At the end of the day, Tikhomirov had large contracts to fullfill and Phazotron did not get as many…

Ukraine’s Su-25s were obsolete, as most have no been upgraded since the 80s. Also, the upgraded ones do not have new RWR/ECM thus no real improvement. If 1980s Su-25s would be replaced by 1980s A-10 the result is likely to be the same.

Argentina would need to get a certain number of F-16 to pose a threat to the Falklands. Ideally, it should be a modern variant like Block 60 (AESA radar, AN/ALQ-165 Self-Protection Jammer…).

Apart from F-16, are there ex-US Navy F-18C/D available for sale? A large number has been retired in recent years and replaced with Super Hornet. Range is not as good as F-16 but is a modern fighter-bomber.

Well, IMHO, none: After Su-27s F-15s made their BVR duel in the fight for air superiory, F-16s were to encounter escorting Su-27s along with Su-24s, Su-25s, MiG-29s were to encounter escorting F-15s along with F-111s and A-10s.

I thought most of the Soviet Su-27 operated in PVO units…

When launch conditions are met, a voice signal and HUD sign simply tells the pilot to launch his missile. Usability is debatable, but such deep navigation features are still not present on any variant of any western aircraft.

NATO operates Link-16 with a similar purpose.

German MiG-29Gs had their datalinks removed and were operating MiG-29 on -backup- TACAN based navigation.

So MiG-29 uses datalink as main navigation tool? From what I understand it uses an inertial navigation system. Did export Fulcrum used it as well?

Also nice to see steryotypes about Soviet pilots having no autonomy are repeated as fact. lol.

HTR1, can you expand a bit more on this?

In terms of raw performance and avionics I would think both aircraft are comparable. Most recent upgrades for both date from early 2000/late 90s. Maybe MiG-21 could have an advantage in BVR due to R-77 and higher speed. F-5 has a clear advantage in range though.

I would choose depending on access to spare parts. Croatia has been struggling to overhaul MiG-21s.

How would an upgraded AESA F-15 compare with a current EF-2000 (mechanical radar)? The American fighter has obtained a few contracts in recent years, beating more modern airframes. I think it’s combination of range, performance, avionics and weapons is still hard to beat.