YellowSunY-20 Bacon
While your assessment of Brazil’s strategic realities is spot on, your beach knowledge is lacking.
There are no nude beaches in Brazil and no-one ever dares to bare there. Brazil is a very religious and well-mannered place so while it is perfectly OK to wear a bikini that only functions at a sub-atomic level, it would be unthinkable to take it off.
However the Russians are mad for it – snow or no snow.
YellowSunEveryone please take a step back, take a deep breath and read the DSCA notification again – properly this time.
The F-15SE announcement is NOT for the aircraft – it’s only for the listed mission systems and support equipment. Hence the modest (well, sort of) price tag.
YellowSunListen to the chap who said Saudi Arabia. He knows what he’s talking about.
YellowSunJ-10 Air Force Update
And then there were two…
YellowSunTo answer the question…
The aircraft (020) nearest the camera is a Nanjing Light Aircraft Company AD-100 ultralight.
The thing behind it (08) is more curious. It appears to be a side-by-side seating version of the same design which so far eludes proper ID.
I must go and look at my photos again. I have no recollection of even seeing these at the ’96 show.
YS
YellowSunActually, the one I really want is the one depicted in the instructions for the J-10 model…as seen on side of box.
YS
YellowSunWhat might have been
In terms of Visby, I do like it, despite its shortcomings. It is a very Swedish vessel, being a well armed small ship, packing a good punch, and is basically the ultimate extension of the fast missile boat.
You mean, it COULD be a well-armed vessel – but right now the Visbys have nothing except an inadequate 57-mm/70 gun. They have no air defence missiles, no anti-ship missiles, no land attack missiles, no close-in defences at all – not even a 0.50-cal.
At the moment the Visbys are nothing more than glorified minehunters who would have a tough time escaping a couple of E-boats…or even a tank on a beach.
Until this changes, the Visbys remain a great answer in search of a question.
YS
YellowSunThe Great Polish F-16 Disaster
Poland’s F-16 procurement was a catastrophe from start to finish. A catastrophe for industry, a catastrophe for the Air Force. It was an object lesson in how not to do procurement.
The F-16 procurement has left Poland weakened in every way, from operational sovereignty right down to the number of working jets on the ramp.
The only way the Polish C-in-C could put a gloss on things was to note that the F-16’s serviceability rate was better than the MiG-29 or the Su-22…marvellous.
Poland acquired F-16s in a deal that was cynically politicised by both sides, and was gifted aircraft that it essentially didn’t have to pay for. In return, promises of offset have turned out to be a joke – just like they have in Chile and everywhere else.
Now the Polish Air Force is finding out that these aircraft cost money – serious money – to keep flying. Money that no-one seems to have budgeted for.
Any nation looking at acquiring a next-generation combat aircraft in the near future should look at Poland’s F-16 deal and run as fast as possible in the opposite direction.
YS
YellowSunI’m not saying that it can’t be done – or that no-one wants it…merely that any user who needs to integrate a national-specific (i.e non-US) weapon on its jets will have to pay the entire cost on its own – and that cost will be eyewatering.
Just look at how Meteor and Brimstone have slid further and further down (and off) the UK weapons list for JSF.
If Australia came on board that would split the cost and be a good thing – but an ‘adaption study’ doesn’t mean much. We already know that the thing fits. Now someone has to pay real money to actually go and do it…
…and if an anti-ship weapon is such a big deal for the JSF why doesn’t the major customer, with two sea-going variants, have a solution for one? Says it all really.
YS
YellowSunNot So Marvellous
Best not to get too carried away by this announcement. It is a marketing agreement only, and a very general one at that.
It is all part of the industrial politicking that went hand-in-hand with Norway’s signature of the PSMoU.
Norway will still be obliged to pay a sizeable sum to Lockheed Martin for the privilege of having its own missile integrated with its own aircraft – because the JSM is outside the US weapons set for the F-35 (and is therefore not wanted by the Program Office). That pricetag might be enough to stuff the JSM in actuality.
You get nothing for nothing with the JSF.
YS
YellowSunMiG-35 Press Release
This is the text of the official MiG press release from their MiG-35 pre-Aero India ‘event’
YS
**********
New outlook of the famous MIG
The corporation has set up a modern product range. With a new MiG-35 fighter RAC MIG has formed up a prospect product range to meet the market demand in the nearest and upcoming future.
This product range has been named as the “unified multifunctional combat aircraft family”. It includes MiG-29K/KUB shipborne fighter, MiG-29M/M2 and MiG-35 front-line fighters. Each of the above mentioned 4++ generation aircraft have been designed in a single and double-seat versions. Nowadays the serial production of MiG-29K/KUB has been started to fulfill the Indian Navy order for the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier.
The RAC MIG designers have been talking about three stages of the aircraft family unification. First of all, this is inside family unification between MiG-29K/KUB, MiG-29M/ M2 and MiG-35. All the fighters have the similar airframe, propulsion system as well as main aboard systems. All of them have been equipped with the digital fly-by-wire system with four-fold redundancy. All the aircraft have been covered by the united after-sales support system and will be facing the similar upgrade packages.
Second, the designers have succeeded the high-level of unification among the single-seat and double-seat aircraft. As for the construction elements, aboard equipment and weaponry, it comes to 100%. All the fighters use the unified cockpit canopy with an extra fuel-tank installation aboard the single-seater.
Third, RAC MIG is going to present a range of proposals to extend the unification level of the new fighters with the MiG-29 previous variants.
As for the avionics, the new MiGs have been changed dramatically in comparison with MiG-29 but the aircraft outlook has not been change a lot. Besides, several combat technical characteristics of the fighter have been radically changed also. For example, the aircraft external payload overcomes 6 ton, while the amount of the payload points was extended by 4in comparison with MiG-29. The fuel stock was extended by almost 50% to increase the aircraft range substantially. The new aircraft also enjoys the in-flight fueling system.
According to the RAC MIG regional director in India Mikhail Globenko, the main attention over MiG-29K and MiG-35 development has been paid to the aircraft reliability and serviceability. The flight hour cost of MiG-35 and MiG-29K in comparison with MiG-29 early versions has been decreased in almost 2.5 times.
Some parts of the new family fighters’ avionics has reached the 5th generation aircraft level. The share of such components has been increased over the latest modifications. While MiG-29K/KUB and MiG-29M/M2 has been equipped with Zhuk slot-array antenna radar, the MiG-35 has become the first non-US fighter to be equipped with the active phased-array antenna radar (AESA). This radar has been designated Zhuk-AE and is the further development of the Phazotron-NIIR Kopyo and Zhuk family.
It should be mentioned that the MIG designers have a long-standing experience with electronic scanning employment as the first world fighter with such type of radar, namely MiG-31 went into serial production in 1979.
Besides the APhAR the new generation technologies have been employed within the passive electro-optical systems, first installed aboard the MiG-29K/KUB with a further development aboard MiG-35. Such technologies have been used initially aboard the Russian space equipment.
According to the RAC MIG the unified fighters weaponry will integrate the latest Russian technological developments, which has never been previously exported. Besides, MiG-35 could be adopted for the non-Russian aboard equipment and weaponry installation.
In the frame of the unified fighters family development RAC MIG has set up experimental aircraft for the prospect technologies testing. In the last years up to 10 experimental aircraft have been employed. Aboard one of them, namely MiG-29M OVT, all-aspect nozzle deflection technology has been tested to reach super-maneuverability. The thrust-vectoring engines installation is optional for the MiG-35 customers.
Nowadays, the new generation family fighters are in serial production with the aircraft earlier versions, for example MiG-29SMT. But according to the RAC MIG experts in future all the MiGs will be produced as the unified family members. The family itself is just at the initial stage of its life cycle and will be improved over a long-time with its avionics and weaponry capabilities. RAC MIG is going to offer its customers the new upgrade packages to bring the previously built aircraft close to the MiG-29K or MiG-35 capabilities.
According to the RAC MIG the MiG-35 will be demanded initially by the states to renew the existing fleet of MiGs. It will be supported by the active marketing policy including trade-in contracts as well as technology transfer, license production and further cooperation with the local industry.
YellowSunFAB Fighters
I would treat this list with extreme scepticism…not only are the Su-35 and Rafale (both perfectly good aircraft) the two weakest contenders, but it makes no sense to exclude anyone from the list right now – if only to use them as leverage to negotiate a better price from the other parties.
When FX does start up again I would expect the list of contenders to look pretty much the same as before…with the probable substitution of Rafale for the Mirage 2000.
YS
YellowSunnew primary-trainer behind ???
No – it’s the Sunshine UAV remote sensing system.
Length: 7.7 m. Span: 14.6 m. 750 kg MTOW. 12 hr endurance.
YellowSun< YAWN >
YellowSunExceptionally stupid. Yes.
Siggles
You told me the whole C-17 thang was a done deal…blah blah blah blah blah you said…are you telling me now it didn’t happen? Good Lord!
I’m shocked.
:rolleyes:
YS
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