yeah, what ever happened to Vortex, GarrayB, Tempest, and SealordLarry?
those were some interesting people.

I heard PLA got upgraded to a new version and Hamburger updated into a combo meal.

Ah yes, good old days and some names well remembered there. but won’t go off-topic on it too much. No, PLA never got upgraded to a new version, he still visits but doesn’t have an ID. Common lore goes that the Hamburger turned into a Chinese Hot-something. About Otaku, that’s a shame and a big loss. I seriously doubt though that he was a she.

Have you guys seen the F-35 S/VTOL competitor from China? Or the single engined light fighter model being thrown around? Wonder how mature those are compared to this J-20. Technically, a cheaper lighter single WS-15 engine based plane should be relatively simple and hassle free for China and Pakistan may also choose to chip in.

http://twitter.com/Rory_Medcalf

seems to be reporting live in English?

I think S-300 plays a huge card in international affairs. Probably second to a nuclear strike capability. Funny, a defensive weapon, i know.

I honestly believe so. For example, take this: Would USA be more concerned over Iran getting S-300s or having a good stealth fighter plane? Defensively speaking, I’d go with S-300s if I was Iran. It is a lot easier to get full effectiveness of S-300 than proper integration of a stealth plane.

Now, Russia knows how popular and feared S-300 is. It has been raising arguments for last 15 years over who is possibly getting it, and who isn’t. All the more power to Russia. How much did they benefit so far simply from NOT selling it to certain countries!

Could it be possible that Russia created a DIY ( do it yourself) S-300 “kit” in form of information package, which they sold to North Korea and Iran for them to build. It would be somewhat less potent S-300 system, but within same category. (if they think they can)

Could this be what we are seeing in Iran and North Korea?

just a though.

cheers

Very interesting point. I think that Iran and NK are sure to be cooperating in this sector. I also think that a LR-SAM is not that big a leap for the Iranians who build the Mersad, an upgraded Hawk system (full system that includes every sub-system and is digitized) which has increased range. Simply scaling up many of the systems of the Mershad could give them a LR-SAM. With more input from backdoor S-300s and cooperation with NK, they are sure to be either already fielding something or on the verge of.

Between, if SOC is figuring out were the few S-300s Iran has acquired would be stationed, there is something to there being S-300s. Remember that SOC is after all USAF intelligence no matter how much he claims his work is open source, he wouldn’t put this kind of stuff out if he thought it was bull.

Did you mean J-20 Tiny?

China’s HQ-9 is rumored to have an anti-stealth capability – I believe something like a Vera sub-component.

Iran is noted to have a few S-300s from alternative sources as well. These may be placed at the most important sites like Natanz, etc. That is perhaps something to consider in your analysis Wanderlei. Not to mention upgraded Hawk SAMs and a ton of other weapons many of them probably not known to the international community; chinese sams, bits-and-pieces sams cobbled together from various sub-systems sneaked in from a wide variety of places, NK variants of older sams and more. They are packing everything into those high value targets specially in the western regions of Iran.

PS: Iran is not Syria, they are a completely different ball game. They are far more professional, serious, battle hardened and simply competent than the Syrians who were so lazy that they would place their sams in valleys rather than on the top of hills simply because they hated digging latrines. Fact to remember, Iran trains Hezbollah, the lightly armed and numerically few force that recently sent 30,000 of Israel’s best soldiers packing.

PPS: Also, Natanz is not the only fuel enrichment plant. Smaller pilot plants are available. For all that is known, there may be “many” small ones. We are talking abou uranium-based weapons here and not plutonium based. Uranium based systems can be built in small distributed buildings spread throughout the country without a large plant. A plutonium based system like Pakistan however can’t do the same. The tradeoff however is the uranium based systems can never be as powerful, small and well, “usable” as plutonium based systems.

PPPS: Some Muslims are expecting a nuclear attack. It’s in some of our revelations: The Prophet (peace be upon him) talks about a “Blast” with a “devastating sound” that will “awaken the one who is asleep and knock down the standing” and which will appear as a “sign in the sky, a bright pillar of light”. see here. Conventional bunker busters may be of limited effect against the class of bunkers used and Israel may use “tactical nukes”. Even with conventional weapons the radiation spread would be significant.

No, it came across as if you personally called an iranian embassy and warned them. that was what i found odd.

Buran, if Iran did that again, it would provide even more reason for the US to explain ‘operation iranian freedom’

And the regime is unpopular, and I’m sure the catastophic mistakes of Iraq wont be repeated.

= more oil, more safety in the gulf etc etc

I think you are mistaken about whether everyone on this thread shares your opinion on such matters or not. As for what I may or may not do, I guess that is barely appropriate for you to be commenting on and finding “odd” or otherwise. There are certainly a lot better ways than merely calling up their embassy. Noting the Mod’s warning I’ll leave it at that.

Seating for two is a good idea. Firstly, there are several aircraft carrier groups in the sea thereabouts, numerous other naval forces, several neighbouring countries and lots of oil shipping! Two seats means the pilot can stick to flying and some spotting, and the back seat guy can do communications with nearby vessels, additional visual search and navigation. Most SAR assets have more than just one person in them.

True, flying these may have a rather heavy workload for the pilot.