TomcatViPI don’t necessarily disagree, but historically the USSR/Russia have strongly emphasized the strategic end of the tanker spectrum over the tactical – compared to the USAF the proportion of the tactical combat aircraft fleet that is even capable of being refueled in flight is far lower. Where in the former case even the Su-25’s counterpart (A-10) is AAR capable out of the box, the RuAF was until quite recently taking delivery of F-15 equivalents without refueling equipment (Su-27SM). So the only reason they did not have a tanker more like the KC-10 in service previously is that until the Il-96, they lacked a more suitable host airframe for conversion into one – not because they would in fact have been wholly content with a KC-135-class performer!
So where in US service the Stratotanker outnumbers the Extender by about 6:1, a more comfortable ratio for tactical vs. strategic in Russia’s case might be 1:2 (i.e. the Il-96 forming the backbone of the tanker fleet by some margin, rather than the Il-76). And with the total fleet size being so much lower than it is in the USAF, the economic case for having specialist airframes for very similar roles in the first place is probably marginal. In fact, the best idea would probably be not to have dedicated Il-76 tankers at all but deliver all of the cargo airframes fitted-for-but-not-with refueling equipment (like the A400M) and buy a limited number of tanker kits that can be fitted to whatever Il-76s happen to be up for grabs at a given moment when a surge capability is needed.
Old USSR generals enjoyed a much larger nbr of front line fighters and had to project their strategic forces.
Russia has now a much lower nbr of front line fighter and still have the strategic projection needs (albeit much reduced). So there is more needs for in-country refueling. With a large to very large tanker based on a large airframe such as an IL-96 or the 330, there is an increased burden on logistics, planing and a loss of efficiency (kg of fuel delivered vs kg of fuel used to deliver – include logistics and the probability of capacity losses.
Despite all Airbus placards, a refueling airplane has to be built for wartime operations and not like your local fuel station with fidelity rewards etc… Resilience and flexibility has to be built in the system. At minima, an affordable level of redundancy to level the lack of survavibility of a design based on an airliner is of a prime need.
TomcatViPAlso today, the Fr Aircraft Carrier CdG have started its operation in Irak with a First strike by Rafale fighters on the same day.
Source:
Reuters.com
TomcatViPThere is no “Luv”. It’s only abt Time, capacity and cost.
Ramping up the Rafale in such a way will certainly create a vacuum in parts availability*. Hence a decrease in fleet readiness. I doubt that this will be deemed acceptable by either FrAF and India. The only reasonable exit for the Raf is what have been alrdy planed. Improvisation will have a rather disastrous effect at the end, when it all matters: during service entry.
*Thanks to an hazardous Industrial strategy in the past decade.
TomcatViP@MSphere: Sry but this is Wrong.
As stated much earlier, the min capacity production line at Dassault put the burden of overall quality on workmanship. Individuals, tempo and cost are the main variable in that strain based equation.
With a production line built for a higher capacity rate, the above variable have less hysteresis and can be managed more softly (for a transfer). Hence a better quality overall during the (partial) production swap or less cost.
Nothing new in what I say but you have to understand that setting up a (partial) production line for an airframe that have been produced at a high rate in the last decade is much more manageable than a slow production, workshop like process. Moreover, parts requiring heavy investment like Central body doesn’t have to be part of the license prod. On such parts, Financial Gains are low, craftmanship expertise and machinery reliance are high with a higher input on the risk level (yes I promote a reverse process than what LM choose to do with the 35 since the needs are driven by a quick swap on the contrary of the JSF prog).
So, Central body cld stay at MDD/Boeing, and other parts are progressively sourced in India. That way, In Service introduction tempo can be driven very high.
Note that this is not possible with the Rafale. Once again, serial production are much easier to relocate with that kind of product…. Simply because a much deeper work as been down upstream (a classical example is the setting-up of the Hellcat prod line by Grumman at General motors with an aggressive ramp-up).
TomcatViPThe article is good but that is very too much to say that in good French
“Look, there does not have to be a second war,” Fisher continued. “If China sells Argentina enough weapons, a future British government could opt for a lengthy face-saving Hong Kong-like transfer. But in Latin America, such a ‘surrender’ would be viewed as much a Chinese as an Argentine victory.”
I don’t thing anybody cares about any “surrender”* by the Great British Empire anymore in Latin Am. There was Belize and now all this is over.
Experts like Mr Fisher should have a more cognitive approach and balance the gain and loss of the present approach.
*What a strange choice of word!
TomcatViP[…]
The capablity was missed by some, as they could provide near real time, flexible targeting with mutiple sensors.
I noticed at the tim eof events that such craft would hve certainly proved immensely helpful in searching for MH370. Such aircraft should be part of a large empowered and more aggressive ICAO.
TomcatViPIt is extremely likely that test stand was there even before T-50-1 flew for first time. Secondly, from outside it is just a mock up. Considering the real windshield looks more refined and the probable age of this test stand; imho the cad one is an earlier version. And it resembles the early “leaked” versions:
I totally agree. The Sim Cockpit was certainly there long before the Real cockpit was even manufactured.
TomcatViPLCH
Tejas
Beautiful!
TomcatViPGermany Unveils €8.7 Billion Plan to Buy 168 Helicopters.
8.7 Billion Euros: Helicopter Business More Expensive Than Expected
The exposed plan is really controversial. Unitary price has increased. Total number fall down. Airframe already bought will be used as spare (!)…
68 instead of 80 Tiger combat helicopters for €3.55 billion instead of €3.77 billion. Only 40 Tiger will actually be used by the Bundeswehr, the others (older models already delivered) are to be used as spare parts.
If you want to motivate the Eu industry to be competitive and excel in front of its pair… that does not seem to be the right incentive…
it remains “a bad and questionable deal, [and] anyone who found that the framework agreement of two years ago was bad, cannot approve this new deal.” (Green Party MP Tobias Lindner)
TomcatViPAs a complement:
First airstrike by an Islamist faction in Libya
The Islamist-backed faction [Libya Dawn] in Libya’s civil conflict said Tuesday that it had carried out its first airstrike, targeting opponents in the town of Zintan in an escalation of the violence tearing the country apart.[…]
Tuesday night […] its forces had used “two or three” Russian-made MIGs to hit a Zintan airstrip and another location where the city’s fighters had gathered.
The extent of the damage was unclear.
A statement from the airport authority in Zintan said a warplane had bombed the airport around noon, just as a civilian flight was preparing to take off.
Source:
The New York Time
TomcatViPThank you Swerve for a swift response. This is exactly what I had in mind.
TomcatViPJust let me guess… Those loans are now legally part of the Fr public debt ?
TomcatViPEasy to maintain, no extra stuff that breaks,lightness to the aircraft. Yeah half of swedish pilots has broken thier legs atleast once ! NOT ! Scew some more dudes. They hopfully will have ppl to meet them wherever they land, othervise its hard to refuel and reload the plane dont you think.”If anything sometimes it’s nice to watch the conversations unfold in forums.”
When I will see Pilots dancing the Polka on this thing, I will have faith on what you just wrote… In the meantime… :very_drunk:
TomcatViPEgypt and Lybian Air Force Bombs targets in Lybia
Egypt’s air force bombed Islamic State targets inside Libya on Monday, a day after the group released a video appearing to show the beheading of 21 Egyptians there.
[…]
dawn strike, in which Libya’s air force also participated, hit Islamic State camps, training sites and weapons storage areas in Libya,
[…]
“More air strikes will be carried out today and tomorrow in coordination with Egypt,”
EDIT:
The military statement did not disclose the location of the strikes. But a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Badr Abdelatty, later confirmed news reports that the jets had hit Derna, Libya, where some of the local Islamist fighters have declared themselves the Barqa Province of the Islamic State.
Although far from Tripolitania Province, where the Islamic State group that killed the Egyptian Christians is from, Derna is close enough to the border for Egypt’s jets to reach it easily without having to refuel en route.
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