The chinese would probably sell them reversed-engineered Asphide technology for oil. Its not like that technology has a serious shelf life. You have to strike a deal while an opportunity exists. With the sabre rattling between Washington D.C. and Tehran, I would guess such a deal has fertile ground to mature.

Thats true. I think thats a better option than attempting to outright replace the radar because the radar is sort of “all over the place” and not just in the nose..

186,8 Mio. (DSW-Datenreport Sept. 2006) and still growing since than.
But it is not about arguments really, isn’t it? Military threat perception has nothing to do with that. There is no country around Brasil to pose a real threat the next decade for shure.
We can discuss to replace worn out fighters, but not to rise the number of that. With the same logic one can claim that the Netherlands do pose a threat to the FRG. Similar 1:7 ratio in population as between Brasil and Venezuela. In Brasil more people die and suffer from internal shortcomings every year as the worst case scenario from a neighbour.

The intelligent question is the other way around. What will be the most cost-effective minimum solution to deter an external threat and to keep the personal trained to allow a rise or drop in numbers, whatever the future may show.

I still have to smile, when someone had to use the example of P-47 over 60 years ago to bolster his claim.

Sens, now I understand what you meant by your reply to my post. Well, that does make sense if you are only looking to your regional neighbors. However, Brazil wants a permanent security council seat…

Unlike what most people watching cnn/fox/bbc think, Brazil and Venezuela are actually sharing quite cordial relationship. In fact, working to build an alternative to many (western) global institutions. To the question of there being hungry people in Brazil, please visit the southern states of the US. I visited the South East region last month and found people from the stone age, including white people searching for food in garbage cans. Now I’m actually not that bothered about the US arming and subsidizing Israel, they really are doing it at their own expense.. 😀

Venezuela has to arm itself in preparation of some form of US intervention. Also the military has to be kept happy and functional, most of Venezuela’s past weapons are now nonviable because they are Western in origin. Case in point: the F-16s.

it still has a bit to go, going by the WS-10A schedule. It will probably be ready for mass production later 2008 or early 2009.

Yeah it does, I do think 2008-9 seem more realistic, at least the certification is done. Very likely for the next 50 on order by the PAF.

I wonder how much trouble it would be to re-engine the first 50 on their first overhaul…

WS-13 certification

Looks like the FC-1 will finally get that engine..

(posted from FarooqHafeez’s post at Pakdef)

I think they should reopen the F-15 line and make one last version of it, but thats just me 😀

Limited & Superficial Comparison of Air Assets of the PAF & IAF

Hey SOC

Interesting analysis. It should be pointed out that more details on the FC-1 have been emerging, so if I wrote the same thing right now it might look a little different.

Point taken

Just because the engine face is hidden in a line-of-sight sense doesn’t mean a radar reflection can’t be obtained.

Yet it was your opinion some time back that if the intakes are RAM treated that would not be an issue.. so are you saying that there is no RAM treatment? Or that the PAF won’t treat the most important radar reflective area but treat other sections? Isn’t this getting a bit like tom and jerry here?

“For instance, the radar can simultaneously engage 4 not 2 as SOC mentions.”

That’d be one of the details I wasn’t aware of 😀

😀

“The PAF is likely to have a 500 fighter airforce”

I was writing within the context of what was on the books or projected right now (or more accurately, right then). Where does a 500 fighter force come from?

I believe I read it somewhere in pakdef, on an interview with someone. Perhaps you can dig it up or ask at the Q&A section.. I spent my five minutes trying to dig it up but without success.

What AEW&C aircraft is under contract for delivery to Pakistan right now (or agian, more importantly, a while ago when the article was written)? Also, it might level the detection and situational awareness playing field, but you still have to consider weapons system performance. The AEW&C aircraft won’t be guiding an SD-10 or R-27ER/R-77.

Swedish and apparently chinese. Again we’re digressing to the range of the radar which I have covered in my article

“If seems clear that the J-10 will be focused on countering the 230 odd MKI that India will eventually have.”

Doesn’t that make my argument for me? If the FC-1 could do that, it would negate the need for the J-10.

Aren’t you oversimplifying here?

If I have to use Chinese hardware to face a modern, well equipped fighter force, give me the J-10 over the FC-1 11 times out of 10 (removing the J-11B from the equation of course).

Have you thought of how many you are going to get? Make my day and build me your airforce with PAF’s budget for 250 JF-17s. Build me a cost analysis and lets see what you got.

“present long range SAMs seem prohibitively expensive.”

They should look at the HQ-9, giving S-300PMU capability for what one would assume is a fraction of the cost.

You know, I liked the HQ-9 before you started talking about it 😀 Your eagerness to supply the Pakistanis with the HQ-9 makes me think the USAF has the system nailed.

Will the FC-1 work for Pakistan? I have no doubt it will. Is it an inferior aircraft to the Su-30MKI in terms of performance? Most assuredly so, which is the reasoning behind the J-10 purchase apparently, using your information. The Su-30MKI is a heavy air superiority aircraft, in a different class than the lightweight FC-1, so of course you’re going to have differing capabilities and such. My point is not so much that the FC-1 is a Mk.1 POS that should be relegated to a hangar somewhere in the Gobi Desert, but rather that Pakistan could have done better when you consider what they have to face. I think they got caught up in the prospect of a BVR-capable aircraft that they could manufacture themselves to some degree.

I think your technical analysis has failed in key quarters. Remember a whole host of issues such as the 4 simultaneous engagements were known before you wrote your article, they were in fact posted on my blog, which I believe you took some of your data from (?). I also think you’ve missed out on the main factor that makes the MKI a better platform than the FC-1 (again lest you take it to mean something else, this does NOT mean that the FC-1 cannot compete, but an area that it lags which is not a show stopper).

I’d consider re-looking and re-analyzing the situation, but with the immaturity that reigned at PakDef (Fahad H, Munir, and Sabre) after the last go-round, it’s not worth the effort at this time.

I most certainly await your analysis and do appreciate that you’ve taken the effort to attempt to think about the issues at hand. I don’t actually completely disagree with the aforementioned three names you mentioned; as someone who has studied some modest psychology, I do know that when a person is discussing one issue (say the FC-1) and then suddenly brings in a completely different issue (say Pakistani effort in Waziristan), its something of a “red flag” of bias. But you are a thinking individual and I most certainly appreciate that. Yet I do find some of your views offensive and in bad taste, for instance your “the most useless word” jihad steam out, it seems you know little about the word or what it means. For instance, did you know that there is a jihad against cancer? Or illiteracy? But I’m degressing from the topic and I dare say am getting on your nerves. 😀