I believe the supersonic Klub is simply a shorter subsonic sustainer stage tipped with a supersonic terminal stage? So why such a huge difference in range?:confused:

Funding is flowing in along with Ka-62. But many have concerns that Mi-38 went too far from Mi-8/17 replacement (what it thought to be initially) – in short, yes – chopper have better performance but will cost [much] more and will the customer ready to pay for it? there are two proposed military versions, Mi-383s, one of them being NH-90-style faceted stealthized design with four-post landing gears – but not sure if Army will want to pay even more for that.

Thanks. My guess is the Mi-8/17 will remain the RuAF’s main transport helo for the early part of this century with the Mi-38 gradually getting inducted in small numbers. Purchases will increase when the prices go down as the technology matures and economies of scale arise with foreign sales.

If only the Eurocopter partnership had worked out, this may already be ready for service. I’d prefer the IAF had bought 140 of these instead of ordering more Mi-17s.

^It matters little what the Navy wants if the politicians want to slash the budget. I’m sure they didn’t want their brand-new Nimrods scrapped and the old ones retired either, but it happened. There were many articles about them wanting to scrap one or both articles a few years ago, and I understand both carriers were only retained because it’d be as expensive or more to cancel them(under the contracts) than to approve them.

Heck, when the carriers were switched to CATOBAR it was even said that only one of them would get the conversion!

BTW the QE class were designed ‘for but not with’ the addition of cats and traps at a future date if necessary. That can still be done if required(and paid for). And even in STOVL configuration the Indian Navy would find it useful if it ends up buying the F-35B(which has been offered by LockMart).

Basically, whether or not it costs the UK government politically(I don’t think they’ll be re-elected anyway), if the economy gets bad enough and India makes a strong enough offer, I think it’s possible to see one of the CVFs flying the tricolour. Unlikely but possible.;)

Some truly amazing pictures on China Defence Blog of a model of the Ex-Varyag! Its huge, either that is one enthusiastic model maker or its been commissioned for the China navy to be displayed somewhere! Considering the accurate detail and the nice base it sits on I am more inclined to think the latter. What is interesting is it gives a very nice close up snap shot of possible operations on the carrier!

My gut feeling as is suggested in the article is she will get named during the 85th anniversary of the founding of the PLA, or before the October 1 National Day.

Anyhow behold:

Ah, so wonderful….

If only the Indian Navy had approached Ukraine instead of Russia when it wanted to buy a carrier in 1997….:(

The IAC delayed by at-least 2 more years. Vicky is going to be crucial.

And hopefully the HMS Prince of Wales as well.:dev2:

Impressive photo of Tu-214R.

I presume, from that antenna fairing on the sides and belly, that this is the Russi JSTARS?

http://www.armstass.su/?page=article&aid=109160&cid=25

50 years ago the Mi-8 first flew!
Hurrah!

50 years later the aircraft has a backlog in the hundreds.

Makes me feel sad for its supposed ‘successor’.

The Mi-38 can do everything the Mi-17 can do and more, but conversely the Mi-8/17 can do most of the things it can at a fraction of the cost. Hence no chance.

What’s the status of the program these days?

The original diagram with: the -2000 AWACS air marshals Wang Zhangqin Wang Xiongchun.

-2000 early-warning aircraft of the air marshals f independent research and development is called “disappointing machine”, since 2009 the National Day parade “domineering” appearance, it has always been of great concern at home and abroad. People are not only concerned about its technical and tactical performance, from time to time carries compared with the similar early warning aircraft of the United States, Japan, India and Israel, but also concerned about its position in the People’s Air Force, the role of sporadic reports from time to time through the media, it speculate on the practical effect of their service since.

In fact, the “Liberation Army Daily, March 10, 2010, a short message on the offensive and defensive operations in the sea air marshals -2000 rate fighters drill far, a number of foreign media and research institutions as the” People’s Liberation Army the combat capability and greatly improved the evidence repeated references from one side shows the actual efficacy.

Early warning and detection from the ground “to” Air “

I don’t see how the KJ-2000 is ‘dissapointing’ just because there is concern about its performance vis-a-vis American or Israeli systems. If it fulfills the PLAAF’s requirements, that should be good enough. And it probably does at that, since we’ve seen pics of more IL-76 airframes being converted to KJ-2000 standard while there have been no new orders for A-50s from Russia.