So what’s the latest *reliable* news regarding the MiG-35 for the RuAF, given that all sorts of news has been flung around. Are they going to purchase any?

Nothing confirmed yet. However, according to Sergei Korotkov, chairman of RSK MiG, MiG-35 would be included in defence program for 2014

http://vz.ru/news/2012/8/11/592954.html

Probably another distorted reporting from the former tank commander?…who btw cannot identify a T-72 (the very tank he supposedly commanded), the case being a Syrian T-72 exploding, which later turned out to be a western tank…after many posters pointed it out on his blog.
Maybe he will also be coming up with data that for the past decades the IL-76 of IAF have been landing in the same area without any loads.

Last time I read he confused T-72 with T-90, so he is getting worst… 🙂

C-17 probably have better TWR than the old IL-76, and will definitely have better performance. But I think he has pulled this out from somewhere to just make his point that C-17 is superior to the Il-76 and and in the process completely sidelined the whole picture?

I agree. I would expect C-17 to be superior, but not by such margin. It would be interesting how the Il-476 compares.

– fixed landing gear to save weight

Apparently the fixed landing gear only reduces top speed by 10km/h, which is surprisingly low.

Aparently, an algerian MiG-29 has been photographed in 558 ARZ under overhaul or modernization not long ago. I’ll have to find that picture again if it’s not already posted in this topic.

Yes, I think I saw that photo a while ago, thanks. 558 ARZ offers more limited modernizations than SMT program, as radar is kept.

Kazakhstan showing serious interest in MiG-29M2.

Interesting, I would expect such a big country to be interested in Flanker derivatives.

They did retire (park on reserve airfields) most of the inventory within the first decade of independence.

Yep. MiG-23/27 and Su-15 were retired quite quickly. They could have traded the Tu-160s for Flanker/Fulcrum spares, but the US offered to pay in cash for the destruction of the airframes, so they went for it. Kazakhstan exchanged Tu-95 for MiG-31 and spares.

Uland Ude only has the Mi-8AMTSh series and its civil counterpart the Mi-171 series.

The Kazan Mi-8MTV5 and the Ulan Ude Mi-8AMTSh are direct competitors – and BOTH have been order into RusAF service.

Would you say the samples manufactured in Kazan are more advanced? a while ago I read an article on Ulan-Ude and the impression I got is that it aims at customers who are less demanding/cannot afford high tech equipment.

Volga-Dnper is negotiating a contract for 20 An-124 for 4 billion $, There would be an option for another 20 at the same price. Russia’s ministry of emergencies is interested in buying 2 at 300 million $ each.

http://www.ruaviation.com/news/2012/4/13/924/
http://www.ruaviation.com/news/2012/4/16/928/