so long as they fire them on pak tribals and ‘foreign guests’ I am all for it 🙂 any blowback is falling on the pak army and political leaders themselves.

its hard to get a clear definition of Rafale and Eurofighter because
their equipment and capabilities seem to be a series of
rolling upgrades including in future the same AESA radar and
meteor for both? Marketing people and avid fans also talk of
future capabs (2010+) in the present tense. and nobody is
factoring in the increasing budget squeeze as defence funds
for hi-tech fighters stagnate or decline in favour of expeditionary and anti-terror capabs.

so how is a potential buyer to decide which is superior because
timelines always slip in this line of work.

we might see it on the IN Mig29K if things work out. I wonder how
its expected to land back on the carrier though ? do carrier planes regularly land with unfired full-up munitions ?

I doubt any of the longer range expensive KH59 series of missiles will be purchased.
for regular work, they are just too expensive compared to bombing with a LDP from medium alt. I believe the Litening3 can even do it from 30kft ?

strange that Russia produced all this huge series of KH series missiles but lagged so badly in fielding cheap laser kits and a good LDP.

http://www.spyflight.co.uk/SR71.HTM

In 1993 it was decided to retire the SR-71 – the reasons given for the premature retirement was the ability of satellites to carry out the mission and the increasing cost of maintaining the SR-71 fleet. Apart from the cost of maintaining the SR-71 fleet, another factor may have been that may have been taken into consideration was the knowledge that the aircraft had become vunerable. This had been demonstrated on 3 Jun 86 over the Barents Sea, when 6 MiG-31 Foxhounds performed a SR71 co-ordinated intercept against an SR-71 that would have subjected the aircraft to an all-angle AAM attack that even the high speed/altitude and ECM capability of the aircraft would have had great difficulty in defeating.

and here’s I think a good resource on this industrial group..
..very wide product matrix.

http://kmda.finport.net/en/holding.html

State stock holding company “Artem” produces:

1. Aviation guided missile of “air-air” class, series R-27;
2. Automated complexes “Gurt” and others for preparation and technical servicing of all types of guided missiles with radio-locating, infrared, laser, television and other guidance systems;
3. Starting device for fastening, transportation and starting missiles;
4. Beam-holder for transportation and throwing bombs, containers, fuel-tank for all kinds of aviation flying machines;
5. Locks for brake parachutes for super-high-speed airplanes;
6. Automatic machine for creating protection for airplanes and helicopters from missile hits;
7. Aviation electrical mechanisms, electrical engines of continuous current, guiding devices;

8. Electromagnetic contactor with current from 10 to 1000 A, tension 27 V;
9. Electric vacuum cleaners “Artem” and “Super” with power up to 1200 Wt. Vacuum cleaners “Artem” have removable trash packets.
10. Wheelchairs for transferring people with lost function of locomotor apparatus inside buildings and on roads with hard surface. Model row consists of consumer, weighting and active type wheelchairs. A wheelchair with electric engine is developed; starting its production is planned on the 4 th quarter of 2001.
11. Welding semi-automatic machine with work power 220 and 380 V. In the semi-automatic machine complex there is feeder, control panel, lighter, and gas equipment.
12. Auto-tractor electric equipment: weight switch, turn sign, and etc.
13. Cell of zone decompression KZDM-AK-4, designed for conducting physical and therapeutic procedures through pulsatory detachable pressure feed together with magnetic field into area of small basin, as well as high and low ends, which provides growth of the level of exchange processes in body, normalizes albuminous and electronic balance, gemodynamic figures, helps liquidating hotbed of disease, prevents new formation.
14. Joinery: kitchens, doors of different form, chairs and other furniture. Window bars. Handrail for stairs and balconies. Wardrobes for work clothes. Doors, gates, fences.
15. Windshield wipers for trolleybuses.
16. Various compressor sanitary engineering pads from rubber and plastic.
17. Trade and storage equipment.
18. Turnstile, barriers.
19. Garbage containers. Container can be set in a city zone: on passenger sidewalk, in underground passages, in shops, on the territory of parks and squares, on stops of public transport, in airports and railway and bus stations.
20. Traffic light components of new construction.
21. Lawn-mower with gasoline engine “Druzhba-4”.
22. Bread forms for bread factories.
23. Various founding and forged products.

Finport Technologies

around 1986 , over the barents sea a pack of six Mig31s cornered
and got multiple theoritical ‘kills’ on a SR71 per what one reads on
the web. the Mig31 is the only a/c with the range, radar, ceiling and
climb rate to head off a SR71 given some prior warning.