WitchaInterview with Navy Chief Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky
Thanks. Answers a lot of questions regarding Russian Navy plans.
The dates keep getting moved forward for the Russian Navy’s carrier plans.;) Now it’ll be till 2014 just for the design and 2020 to begin construction.
I’m intrigued by what he meant by an ‘all-in-one’ purpse carrier platform – underwater, surface, air etc. Does he mean hybrid carrier/LPD/cruiser? Or is he implying something like UUV deployment capabilities?
WitchaSo any chance of another Rafale-Typhoon contest in Oman and UAE or is it a single-vendor deal in both cases?
WitchaMiG-29 in PROFESSIONAL grey
I love that colour. Makes it look so sleek and sexy!:diablo:
WitchaIn an ideal world, it would’ve been nice if India bought the Gorky but kept its heavy cruiser configuration (no ski jump), and bought the blue print for the Yak-141, which would be replaced by the F-35 in the future :diablo:
yes, my dream an American aircraft operating natively from a Russian ship :diablo:the Soviets had a workable philosophy with a fleet centered on a heavy cruiser carrying aircraft, which could’ve worked better for India’s needs than a pure carrier.
I doubt it. The Gorshkov had fairly limited capability as a carrier, and the same goes for the Yak-38s. Besides most of its weapons fit would have to be replaced before selling it to India(the Bazalt missiles were restricted by MTCR, the rest was outdated and no longer in production) and lastly the Yak-41 never saw the light of day and was unlikely to do so even if the Indians wanted it: The only prototype crashed and all that remains today is a wooden mock-up and blueprints.
If the Indian Navy wanted to stick with STOVL it should have sought the HMS Invincible and bought up the remaining two carriers when they were slashed by defence cuts. Afterwards if it wanted a bigger platform could get the unwanted second QE class carrier at a steal(That option may still be there depending on UK finances in 2017).
WitchaFlying from a carrier deck, a C-2 is limited to 10,000lbs of cargo. So in fact its hypothetical fuel capacity is actually less than a Super Hornet’s, which is around 13,500 lbs in external tanks. Plus the fact that it flies lower and slower, which just makes it less tactically flexible.
So just modify the design such that it can also carry a couple of wing-mounted EFTs.
WitchaNo, more like:
‘We want them just like everything else in our armed forces including personell. We just don’t want to pay for them.’
In the UK wrt armed forces, the two words, ‘Spending’ and ‘Money’ don’t go down together. Ask any British soldier thats had his arms & legs blown off in Afghanistan & paid compensation. Government* ‘Sorry about what happened to you, but you’ve served this country well, we’re all proud of you! Heres some compensation….Actually, can we have that money back please, we need to give it as aid to a country with it’s own space programme. Thanks awfully.’
Kindly refer me to a single case of an ex-serviceman having to actually pay back his compensation to fund foreign aid. I know, there isn’t any.:rolleyes:
Most of the aid UK gives India is through international initiatives to NGOs, not to the government. And much of this is through debts, which will be paid back in due time.
India has no obligation to pick the Typhoon on account of foreign aid. Heck, the very notion that factors like these would have any influence on the MMRCA selection process, given the Indian MOD’s cautiousness to avoid any controversy, was flawed to begin with.:D
WitchaWut.
Sevmash builds the nuclear subs.
Severnaya is building pretty much all the 20380s and 22350s.
Yantar is making the Talwars for Russia.
Admiralty Shipyards is making all the diesel boats.
Zelenodolsk is building Gepards and 21631s.Orders are fairly well spread.
My bad. I keep mixing up Sevmash with Severnaya.
But yes, I meant Severnaya; over half the future warship orders are going to them alone, for both the 20380/20385s and the 22350s. In comparison Yantar making 3-6 Talwars is peanuts.:(
WitchaPicture does not work.
Witcha, do you mean the recent cruise to Syria? Despite reports there was no sighting of MiG-29Ks on the Kuz during the voyage.
I did, though what JangBoGo says is also right.
Man, the sea around Sevmash is frozen! Will it all thaw away by the time it’s ready for sea trials?:eek:
WitchaFlightglobal offers its guesstimate of the schedule re: MMRCA contract finalisation:
1. L1 needs to be announced before negotiations can be arranged?
2a. Contract Negotiation Committee – deliverables
2b. Contract Negotiation Committee – price3. Approval of the Defence Acquisition Council
4. Approval of the finance ministry
5. Sign off by Cabinet Committee on Security
How long to sign off – > 1 year and < 2 years?
I can’t see Dassault agreeing a price quickly somehow. Having been selected, I imagine they will fight for the highest price they can get. The longer the whole process takes, the more flyaway frames may need to be bought (at a higher profit than kits) so I don’t see Dassault being in a great hurry.
😮
It’s incredible how convoluted the bureaucracy has been in the defence ministry ever since the UPA came to power. I understand they’re wary of creating another Bofors saga, but it’s hard to imagine how deals like the Gorshkov, the Talwar frigates, the Hawk trainers and the Su-30MKI would have been signed had UPA been in power instead of the old NDA.
Imagine a 10-year long global open tender for heavy fighters, jet trainers, frigates and even aircraft carriers. We’d still be waiting for the results and the IAF fleet would be down to 16 squadrons.:(
Makes me fear for the future.
Witcha^ A sad end for a once great shipyard. It’s a pity the Russian MOD essentially just let it rot without orders after the Talwar export to India. Meanwhile Sevmash has a near-monopoly over submarines and surface vessels alike for the Navy despite having a shortage of skilled labour.
Witcha😀
Nice to see the project is still moving forward, fingers crossed! It was always a bit… optimistic to expect Ukraine to contribute much in the way of finances, I think Russian insistence (no doubt politically motivated at times) that they pay up to half the required amount ultimately did severe damage. At last a modicum of reason appears to have prevailed and a good number of orders is on the table – production in Russia from 2014 on is mentioned, is Aviakor still the designated beneficiary? Would certainly put their future on a much more secure footing than a handful of uncompetitive, government-stimulus An-140s and a trickle of Tu-154 overhauls…
I wish the Indian Air Force would consider this plane as a replacement for the IL-76. They need a larger tactical aircraft to fill the gap between the C-130/IL-214 and the C-17s.
Antonov has been in talks with Indian private industry regarding licensed assembly of An-148 airliners. With a large IAF order an such an arrangement would be even easier.
WitchaWhat are the prospects for a follow-on Su-34 order post-2015?
Between the Su-24M upgrade, the MiG-31BM upgrade incorporating ground attack capability, the Tu-22M3 upgrade and restart of Su-25 production I’m a bit unclear as to what the Su-34 is actually replacing here…
The Su-34 is meant to replace, in the long run, both the Su-24s and to some extent the Tu-22M3s(since the PAK-DA won’t be built in anywhere near the same numbers as the current Tu-22M/95/160 fleet).
WitchaThanks buddy for the link. But small confusion in their report also…below the translated version
If the said 7% increase of thrust is from the old RD-33, then they are talking about the “original” RD-33MK Sea Wasp.
i.e 7% increase in thrust from the older 83kN thrust engine would be 88.8kN.
If the engine for Russian Navy MiG-29K is with a 7% increase in thrust from the “baseline” RD-33MK Sea Wasp, then it is going to be an engine with 95kN thrust! 😎I hope the news is solid and the next batch of 29 x MiG-29Ks meant for Indian Navy also comes with this new RD-33MK engine.
The correct designation for this engine is RD-33MKM.
And no, it won’t be part of the Indian Navy’s MiG-29Ks. As per our contract the specs for the next 29 are the same as that for the initial batch. i.e. including Zhuk-ME radar and RD-33MK engines.
WitchaSo how well are Kingfisher and Jet Airways doing ? Are they PSUs as well?
Still far better than Air India, as you well know. And they do so without any of the 6000+ crores of bailouts Air India has already had thus far. And as market shares and customer experiences can attest to, they still provide overall better service.
It’s no surprise that both Air India and BSNL became loss-making companies within just a few years of losing their monopoly to private operators, regardless of their decades of experience.
I’m not saying this because of some ingrained disdain for the government or PSUs. The simple fact is that the monopolistic Socialist system in India that borders on welfare(with companies having assured orders and assured funding regardless or performance, and all losses being bailed out by taxpayer) is unviable. If we’re going to have PSUs and government labs handle defence research they should be run the way they are in Russia and China: Where they have to compete and earn their funding, else seek civilian and export customers to survive and avoid shutting down.
Barring that, cultivate private competition.
WitchaI think the article on HAL above seems to be a continuous public conversation about India R&D and defense production.
I think the resent report from CAG mentioning the fact that 70% of DRDO’s product have been rejected by the armed forces has kicked off the debate. You can imagine there are serious conversations being had behind closed doors..
I’m sure these sort of conversations have been going on among defence personnel for years. But I’m not expecting any changes at all. This is the same government that’s bailing out Air India’s gigantic debt with Rs 40000 crores of taxpayer money(which they call ‘equity infusion’) even though any and all attempts to make it profitable over the past 10 years(including past ‘equity infusions’) have failed.
For all the media hype about MMS the great economist, the Congress has always been Socialist-leaning in its policies. The employees of all these state-owned firms form a large and important votebank for them, and I doubt they would so much as dream of privatizing or cultivating private competition in the defence sector anytime soon.
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