Lastly, I’ve been meaning to ask this for a while now. Why wasn’t this helo offered by Eurocopter for the IAF’s light utility helicopter tender? It seems a better match for the Ka-226 than the Fennec.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocopter_EC635

Yep need to get rid of the competitive bids.

Funny how the main purpose of competitive bids is to
-Get better deals from the sellers
-Have a fair and transparent process instead of showing favoritism to a single vendor

And yet in Indian defence deals it achieves the opposite because
-As the years pass by prices only increase owing to inflation, closing of production lines etc.
-Having multiple vendors in competition only increases the potential for corruption and favoritism since the competitors are tempted to grease the government official’s palms to get their own product through.

Indian programs are always… ehm… punctual.

How many decades will they take to buy them? :diablo:

Actually, defence deals were moving at a steady(if not fast) rate upto the era of NDA regime. At least then it was guaranteed for any deal to actually get resolved after a few years of trials and negotiations instead of risking cancellation/re-tendering all the time.

Unfortunately the present AK Antony Defence Administration is rather wary of any potential scams and controversies(real or perceived). So everything gets checked, re-checked, debated and documented to the Nth degree and even then there’s always a very real chance the whole deal will be scrapped and restarted owing to some or the other allegation of corruption.:mad:

To be fair Antony has actually admitted fear of corruption has set back procurement plans by a great deal.:(

http://ttvnol.vcmedia.vn/images/52/dsdsad_1320142965.png

Upgrade A-50 interior.

The same layout as before, but with digital panels/LCD displays? Works.:D

Any pics of the crew rest areas?

And with regard to all the arguments on the WS-10, all I’d like to add is that new aircraft aren’t rolled off the assembly line at the same rate as cars and that a couple of squadrons worth of WS-10-equipped planes may very well be an indication of serial or at least limited series production.

What is this based on though? Just because it is bigger =/= better in everything. They both certainly have strong points.
Since we lack actual performance figures for all modes of operation, I think this kind of judgement is pointless speculation.

Like I said, if the Su-33 was so much better, why not upgrade them? Would be easy, given similar upgrades have made their way to the VVS. I think the Navy made a conscious choice based on their experience with Su-33 on Kuznetsov.

It’s logical that a Flanker airframe would be superior in performance to a Fulcrum airframe with comparable avionics and systems.

That said the Su-33s are nearing the end of their useful life. As per previous articles upgrading and refurbishing them was(and possibly still is) on the table. It may be that the degree of upgrades/engine replacement/airframe refurbishment for a few more years of service was not seen to be as cost-effective as replacing them with new aircraft that could last upto 30 years.

Getting back to the actual topic at hand
-From what I’ve read the MiG-29K was designed from the start as a more multi-role kind of fighter and the AV-MF planned to acquire both Su-33(for air-to-air) and MiG-29K(for air-to-ground). With the collapse of the USSR there was only funding for one type and so the Su-33 was chosen(Partly due to superior platform performance, partly political influence).

-When India bought the Gorshkov it went for the MiG-29K over some Su-33MKI because of small wingtip clearances wrt the superstructure as well as the MiG-29K’s smaller storage footprint(The Su-33 may have opening i.e. folding nose and tailcone, but so does the MiG-29K, and from what I’ve read they are only folded for maintenance and not routine storage).

-How does the MiG-29K compare with vanilla Su-33? Thanks to the latter’s obsolete systems and lack of BVR weapons the new MiG would obviously have the advantage. But on the other hand it would lose to a new J-15 which is like an Su-33 with modern equipment and armament.