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March 31, 2011 at 2:07 pm in reply to: Replacing the F-15E #2365867

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Isn’t A-10 far more armoured than Su-34? Su-34’s armour is confined mostly to the cockpit yes? :confused:

I’d call it a draw in the looks department. Su-34 has some great angles but also some ungainly ones. F-15E is a mean machine all ’round.

March 31, 2011 at 1:23 am in reply to: Russian Navy News & Discussion, Part III #2007047

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I don’t understand this hope to restore all those big cruisers.

I suspect it’s as much pride as wisdom.

March 31, 2011 at 1:19 am in reply to: Air Action Over Libya (Merged) #2365971

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Libyan government should also start deploying decoys, unless already doing so. I doubt Nato would spend alot of time and assets to discover if a tank or rocket laucher is a fake. For the Libyans it would be easy to make artillery tubes that resemble D 30 or other Soviet howitzers. Inregards to Tanks make something out of wood and coat it with aluminium, plus put a oil heater inside. All together it will give of a radar, thermal and visually be similiar to a actual tank. I am sure US military follows policy of “indoubt blow it up”

What would be the point? It’s not like they’re going to run NATO out of munitions.

March 30, 2011 at 2:33 pm in reply to: Replacing the F-15E #2366098

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Armoured cockpit, a seating arrangement offering improved crew comfort and workload sharing, better low-level handling/ride characteristics and marginally greater range/persistence would be my guess. Of course the Strike Eagle has its own advantages…

March 30, 2011 at 1:40 pm in reply to: Serbian AF: Future Equipment #2366119

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Russia probably wants to keep RSK MiG busy; I can see them offering a loan to that end. Gets RuAF off the hook of having to order the MiG-35 themselves. 😉

March 30, 2011 at 9:34 am in reply to: Replacing the F-15E #2366178

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F-35 derivative would be cheaper and thus more plausible. In the timeframe we’re talking about (2025+) I think that if an even larger airframe was required the consensus would be to wait for F/A-XX rather than pursue an F-22 deriv. Indeed, the requirement could be used to advance the case/timeline for F/A-XX.

The question of the number of seats is a good one. On the one hand you’ve got the trend towards increasing automation – most FB-22 concepts were single-seaters IIRC – on the other, the nascent doctrine of having manned combat aircraft acting in concert with and coordinating UCAVs, something which would seem to require a back-seater to avoid overloading the pilot.

What mission doe it need to perform that requires a “derivative F-35”?

Greater range/persistence and payload than offered by the base F-35?

March 30, 2011 at 9:19 am in reply to: INS Vikramaditya: Steaming towards Induction #2007064

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^ There have also been problems more recently with CdG requiring return to port IIRC.

March 30, 2011 at 8:55 am in reply to: Serbian AF: Future Equipment #2366183

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I was under the impression that MiG-29K was further evolved beyond MiG-29M, not merely a navalised ‘M’. But I’m probably wrong on that score. If anyone has a link to a rundown of the entire Fulcrum family tree I for one would be interested.

March 30, 2011 at 6:33 am in reply to: Replacing the F-15E #2366216

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Participant

Here is a recent Fighter Recap graph

Nice graph, thanks. Obviously it predates the truncation of F-22 production. Not to belabour the point, but again I can’t help but wonder at the budgetary assumptions underlying these projections.

What’s the purple section up top of the F-22/F-X section starting in about 2026?

The F-15A/B returns! 😀

Seriously, I think that’s “F-X’.

March 29, 2011 at 4:24 am in reply to: Serbian AF: Future Equipment #2366543

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Participant

Of course the wisdom of opting for an upgrade of existing airframes rather depends on how many hours are left in them…

March 29, 2011 at 1:58 am in reply to: Cuban AF: Future Equipment #2366570

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For better or worse the reality is that it is becoming too expensive for small nations to maintain relevant capabilities in this area either quantitatively or qualitatively. And again for better or worse, SAM systems and cruise missiles have evolved to the point where they’re able to pick up much of the slack for such nations.

March 29, 2011 at 1:52 am in reply to: Eurofighter Typhoon News & Discussions Thread IV #2366572

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So nobody thinks it the least bit remarkable that to handle a fifth-rate nation like Libya – not that it’s doing even that alone – the RAF has spread itself so thin that it can’t even afford to attend airshows?

March 28, 2011 at 7:04 pm in reply to: Russian Wild Weasels #2366671

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Beats me.. It could be a proposal just like the 1000 other Russian missiles beeing advertized in various Sukhoi presentation.

I lol’d.

March 28, 2011 at 5:56 pm in reply to: Serbian AF: Future Equipment #2366699

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It would certainly be nice to have nice and shiny new fighters to parade around but when you look at it from the perspective of someone who has to pay the bills for that, buying a fighter with no clear production future is something only ignorant and corrupt clowns, such as ones currently sitting both in the Government and the Opposition in Serbia, could consider.

Besides, MiG-35 is too large (and probably expensive – we still have to wait to see that, but I think it is a safe bet) for Serbias’ needs.

I think characterising a hypothetical decision to buy MiG-35 as one taken by ‘clowns’ is a bit much, but I take your point. To be honest, in Serbia’s position I’d likely forego fast combat jets entirely and focus on other funding priorities both military and civil. Maybe lease some vanilla Gripens for a decade (or UAE’s Mirage 2000-5s if cheaper+available) if the aim is to retain a skills base from which to develop further capabilities in future.

But sometimes it’s just fun to wear the ‘jet fanboy’ hat. 😎

March 28, 2011 at 5:46 pm in reply to: MMRCA News And Discussion 7 #2366702

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Rafale is a possibility also: the UAE wanted upgraded engines in the course of their negotiations with Dassault. Maybe now Dassault/Snecma are in position to meet that.

It definitely makes sense for Gripen to offer the EPE/EDE engine upgrades as soon as they’re available. I’m sure the extra thrust would be very welcome for the aircraft too, claims of supercruise on existing engines notwithstanding. 😎
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