You get what you pay for srbin. lets just put it that way.

Not exactly, I don’t see why A400M is twice as better than an An-70 according to it being twice as more expensive.

Force logic aside, there has to be a good reason why they would consider Su-30MKs now. Think endurance, think long range maritime strike, think long range interdition. The warmed over F-16A/B/C/D is not in the same class.

Yes but is Thailand a large country that needs a fighter with long endurance and range? Not like they will need them to travel hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kilometres to attack an enemy.

Besides, why not just get a Mig-29M/SMT, it will do a great job too. I still think the best choice would be to acquire more F-16s and upgrade them in Israel with Python 5, Derby and Gabriel IV(with 200km of range, not as good as Yakhont-M but still way better than Harpoon)

Thailand, its huge poultry industry stricken by bird flu, wants to pay for Russian weaponry with chickens, the Reuters news agency quoted the country’s prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as saying.

Thaksin said he had ordered his ambassador in Moscow to offer Thai chicken for Russian weapons and that he would consult with military chiefs on what arms they wanted.

“Our chicken exports have been hit by bird flu,” Thaksin told reporters on Tuesday. “When we can’t sell in our traditional markets, we need to penetrate new markets by bartering. We can’t leave all this chicken in Thailand.”

Thailand, the world’s fourth biggest chicken exporter until the industry was ravaged by bird flu early this year, has never exported poultry to Russia.

But with the European Union and Japan, its biggest customers, barring imports of Thai fresh and frozen chicken, it has been offering incentives like cheap credit to Asian countries willing to buy Thai poultry.

Thaksin gave no hint on whether warplanes were on his Moscow shopping list, but Russia’s Vedomosti business daily reported on Wednesday that Bangkok wanted to buy at least six Sukhoi Su-30s worth $200 million.

It quoted a source close to Russia’s arms trade authority as saying Thailand, which has equipped its air force with U.S. fighters, had sent a defence delegation to Russia recently to Irkut, which has a licence to produce the Su-30.

Another company making Su-30s is state-owned Sukhoi Corporation, Russia’s top arms exporter, which forecasts 2004 sales at $1.5 billion and plans to export 40 fighters.

Su-30s, together with MiGs, form the backbone of Russia’s arms trade and go mainly to Southeast Asia, where Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia have long been buyers.

Boosting defence exports is part of President Vladimir Putin’s plan to revive the arms sector, but sales are still a tiny fraction of what they were in Soviet times.

Last year’s arms sales hit a post-Soviet record of $5.4 billion, mainly on strong demand from Southeast Asia. Fighter jet sales make up about two-thirds of Russia’s arms exports.

Well after Libya saw what happend to their French made Mirage IIIs I don’t think they will exactly go for French or in fact anything Western. I think the best bet is to invest in the future into the Russian PAK-FA to replace all te Mig-21s, Mig-23s, Su-24s, Mig-25s and every single fighter cuz the PAK-FA will be multirole, and 50-60 of these aircraft will be suitable enough for Libya’s needs and budget. Also I think their SAMs could be modernized and I would shop for something like S-400.

I am really interested in knowing how the Syrians used their Mig-25s agains the Israelis, how many were shot down/intercepted?

Ummm Thai AF interested in Sukhois? I thought they were all Western hardware and fine with F-16 ADFs.

Well if you had Al-Qaeda or ANYONE else dropping propaganda leaflets over Washington to organize a revolution against GWB, I’d bet they’d have USAF, USMC and USN all over their ass.

Now these Cessnas, were they in Cuban space or NOT?