Row of MiG-15 trainers at Pish Poro AFB in Vlora
Some of these are painted in camouflage patterns
Kids from the Aero Club “Eagle” next to some An-2
LOL…guys seriously take this elsewhere. Of course whenever a thread like this is opened anywhere…it will attract all the “desirable” elements from our neighbours…but seriouslly…I have ABSOLUTELY no desire or intention to talk about such pointless things with any of you. I will end this at this…no politics talk or lessons…period. I am trying to have a real discussion here…don’t ruin it.
Now back on track…
There, those Bell 206’s, those are the gift from Italy right??? In which case they’d be AB-206’s right???
Correct…those are AB-206s from Italy. Most of the helicopters are from Italy. The Bell-222 is from the US, the Alouette IIIs and the AS-350s are from France and the Mi-8 is from Bulgaria.
This will mean that the F-5 that were not upgraded in F-5/2000 standard, will be +5 years in storage and their condition probably worst than what they are now… Again for a symbolic 100$ price you can bet that the upgrade will be undertaken by Turkish companies, would recquire hard cash and it will be significantly more than 100$…
Again do not assume that this deal is going to happen. Most likely, things will be very different 5 years from now. The money to upgrade them will come out of the military aid that Turkey gives to Albania…which since 1998 has ammounted to over 80 million dollars (this does not count many other services Turkey provides for us, such as training for pilots, commandos and sailors and so forth). The problem is the MoD would much rather see that money in military aid in other forms rather than have to forego it by upgrading these F-5s. So I don’t know how or when this upgrade would happen if this deal was chosen…but the F-5 deal is most likely NOT going to happen. The deal was rejected once before I think becasue the F-5s were not offered as upgraded…and then Turkey revised it to what it is today and this is now being considered. Either way, the requirement has been set forth for a fighter wing to be purchased by 2010…whatever those will be has nowhere near been determined.
Sending few pilots to other countries and logging simulator hours does not qualify for flight training. Former pilots that were not current to their types and flew for years the hours that other contries’ pilots log in a month, are not the ideal material for a demanding flight schedule. In order to train pilots you need to start with cadets that are going to follow a rigorous and hard training, with lots of hours… Again this -except from the help of experienced instructor pilots- needs money, and you don’t send them directly to fighters just for prestige reasons…
I don’t think you are understanding this. The pilots send to Turkey are mostly new trainees. Other pilots have been trained under Italian supervision earlier during the operations of the Italian mission in Albania to train new pilots. Also, helicopter pilots are all trained in Italy. So this isn’t a “few” pilots, its ALL the new pilots that are trained in foreign countries. The older pilots are also quite capable of handeling these “demanding” flight schedules…thats not a problem at all. And these are not being send to train on fighters simply for “prestige” reasons, but as I said based on the requirement of the AAF to have a fighter wing in the future. The training process, both in expertise and money is being helped out a lot by Italy and Turkey, so most of the issues you brought up are addressed.
I would like to see some proof that Albania is getting $40 million of military aid like you claim. More likely you are confusing military aid with ordinary aid that various organizations give to “immature democracies” to help them implement reform.
Thank you Miroslav for bringing up that observation…and I can assure you I am not confusing it with such aid 😉 It breaks down as the following in MILITARY aid: Italy 11 mil $, USA 8 mil $, Turkey 5 mil $, GB 4 mil $, Grecce 3 mil $ and 7 mil $ from other countries. These are from 2004.
Regarding other suggestions such as someone saying Albania could afford a fleet of FC-1’s and K-8’s, please explain how many FC-1’s a military budget of 56 million dollars will buy after you subtract soldiers’ salaries and other costs. China will only accept hard cash. No, buying anything new is out of the question. Instead the Alb AF must depend on donations.
FC-1 is not a suggestion anyone has made other than on this forum…so its not an option. China has indeed made several offers to Pandeli Majko, the Ministerof Defense, during his recent visit to China, but most of them were for for ground equipment for the army. China is very interested in renewing military links with Albania…and already plenty of purchases have been made there…including large numbers of HJ-8 ATGMs, engineering equipment and others. Fighters…it is rumored…were offered by China since Majko also visited Chinese fighter aircraft production facilities. However, no details are known of any of this.
Furthermore, Albania’s military budget is 139 million dollars, not 56. And yes we do rely on “donations”, but we’r not short on those.
it is really a pity that Kapedani spoiled it like he usually does in every thread by listing pseudopatriotic boostings and by thus drawing the usual comments from its neighbours. It is much better when he just post pictures.
LOL…I am the one person here who hasn’t said anything of the sort…but whatever. Here are some more pictures…hope you enjoy them:
Bell-222
Used by Ministry of Health as Medivac
J-7A 0209
0203
0304
0207
The F-5s are to be upgraded, if they are going to be purchased. But again, that is just one of the offers available now…and the selection of which won’t happen for another 5 years…so probably something totally different will be chosen then.
Secondly, our pilots are being trained in Turkey and Italy on new types…as well as with the help of the US in Albania itself (flight simulators have been installed at the AF academy). The helicopter pilots get plenty of flight time…they are very active in carrying out all sorts of missions…and most of them are former fighter pilots or helicopter pilots with many years of experience. The fighter force doesn’t get as much however since the fighter wing is on its last leg now…and won’t return to service until 5 years from now.
As for being a “yes man” and losing “credibility” or “bargaining power”, thats the typical Greek view of things so I expected that. For us its not about being a “yes man” at all…but it is working and cooperating with valuable allies who have been good allies to us and who have done so much for us already (Kosova, aid to the army and so forth).
An-2 under repairs
For further information on the AAF and the Albanian military in general, go to the old thread we had in this forum before: http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=37218&highlight=albanian
I have plenty of more photos…if anyone is interested I can post them here.
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