Note to all posters: Sometimes you have to retort to trolls in the language they best understand. It was not my intention to drag the PLAAF/ China into this sh!tfest, but apparently thats the only language some “gentlemen” understand.

Nick, unfortunately the troll is never going to stop, even some Chinese members have PM’d me on him and apologised for him, saying what he say’s doesn’t stand for them.

For some aircrafts, no amount of bribes and kickbacks are ever going to work . And after all, isn’t the nuke deal, one huge bribe ? 🙂

Pakistan’s AirBases on Google Earth

Maybe they took the images in a sequence ,1 second apart and then later stitched them up. So the aircraft appeared in all the images.

What kind of damage was sustained from the tsunami last year?

Not much. It seems the ocean around Diego Garcia is pretty deep, so the shock waves passed by without harming the Island.
(From what I remember : Wave height is inversly proportional to the depth of the ocean and speed of shockwave.)

What happened ? Whats the story ?

No Indian Air Force Thread, so am posting here :

PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS AT THE FIRST CONVOCATION OF THE DEFENCE INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY

In the year 1992, LCA team decided to go for Digital-Fly-by-Wire Control System (FCS) for the Combat Aircraft as it is an unstable aircraft. At that time, the country did not have the experience in developing FCS. The only two countries who had the experience were France and US. The French company (Dassault System) had expertise in Hybrid systems whereas our need was an all Digital-Fly-by-Wire. Hence, it was thought appropriate to have a US partner who has the capability in design, development and integration of FCS on fighter aircraft. There were three candidates, LMCS, USA; Lear Astronics and Bendix. Finally, we chose LMCS for the contract since they had the experience in designing FCS for F-16 Aircraft. Joint Team for design and development of the FCS was formed with ADE (DRDO Lab) and LMCS. The work share between Indian team and LMCS team was identified. Evolution of the SRS (Software Requirement Specification) was the joint effort. The prototype flight control computer was to be done by ADE. Total system integration of FCS was the joint responsibility. Flight certification was to be provided by LMCS, USA.

The $40 million contract was progressing to meet the required schedule. Then as you all are aware, India became a nuclear weapon state in May 1998. As soon as this event occurred the American Government imposed technological and economic sanction. Due to the sanction, LMCS, USA broke the contract and retained all the Indian equipment, software and the technical information which were in their premises.

This was definitely a challenging mission for the Indian team. There was a crisis. Immediately, we had an urgent task team meeting with Directors and their team from ADA, NAL, ADE, CAIR, HAL, National Flight Test Center, Prof I.G. Sharma of IISc a renowned control system specialist, Prof T.K. Ghoshal of Jadavpur University, a digital control system expert and guidance and control specialists from DRDL and ISRO. We had a full day discussion on the methodology required to be followed through which we can successfully complete the development of digital fly by wire system and fly the LCA. The team, after prolonged deliberations gave a structured method by which the development can be completed and the system can be certified for flight trials. They also mentioned that they will support the programme in whatever capacity they have to work with the ADE and ADA teams.

Based on the recommendations of the specialists we immediately strengthened the ADE software team with additional ten experienced software engineers from ADA. ADA was given the responsibility of verification and validation of software. Integrated flight control system review committee was constituted with Director (ADE) as Chairman and PGD (ADA) as Co-chairman to support development and resolve all the conflicts arising between Control Law Team, Iron Bird, Software, Hardware and simulation. This team met once in a week and brought out all the issues arising in different work centers and solutions were found. In addition, Iron Bird (A test platform of Flight Control System) review team was formed with Project Director Flight Control System as Chairman with members from HAL, ADA, ADE, certification agency (CEMILAC) and Test Pilots from National Flight Test Center as Members. This team also met every week and resolved all the problems arising in the development and Test on Iron Bird. Any deviation in the PERT Chart or any difficulty, team members could directly bring the problem for discussion when I met them every alternate Saturday of the month. We also introduced participation of certification agency (CEMILAC) and inspection agency (CRI) in all these reviews. The aim was to see that any problem in any system is brought into focus at the earliest so that the solution can be found. In addition, we made it a point to have a special agenda in the monthly technical committee meeting on the development of integrated flight control system wherein Director (ADE), Director (NAL), Director (National Flight Test Center), General Manager (HAL) presented the progress and problems. The confidence building took place by intensifying the tests. For example informal Iron Bird test was carried out over thousand hours and the formal Iron Bird test was conducted over hundred and fifty hours. Similarly, Pilot flew the LCA simulator for more than two thousand hours. Thus, what we missed from the foreign partner, we compensated by enhancing the design, critical design review and increasing the test time to ensure safe man rated design of the integrated flight control system. This gave the confidence to the user, the Air Force.

The entire team took the denial as a national challenge. They said if it is going to take three years we will do it in two years. If it is going to take twenty million dollars we will do it in ten million dollars. Our working hours was not eight hours. We will work round the clock and complete the task. That was the time I realized the power of Indian Scientific Community, and the power of our country. I realized that no country can dominate us by imposing technological sanction or economic sanction. The power of scientific team will defeat the denials of any nation. Today I can proudly say that our scientists have designed, developed, tested, evaluated, and integrated the integrated flight control system in the LCA which has logged more than 500 trouble free flight sorties in four different aircrafts. Fifth LCA aircraft is getting ready and LSP (Limited Series Production) has already commenced.

Speaking of subs, can someone ID this sub at Karachi ? And why is it in a (what seems to be) floating dry dock instead of regular dry dock ?