1/3rd weight, I presume. And even so, I’m skeptical of that figure. It’s roughly Gripen-sized. Three times the weight of Gripen would be a very big fighter.

I suspect that it will be a large fighter. Japan is passing on F-15SE for their F-4 replacement, which suggests that they’ll have no heavy fighter post-2025 when the F-15Js hit EOL… which is right when they’re looking to bring ATD-X to production.

They may acquire the F-35B at some point. And there’s the ATD-X programme which may very well evolve STOVL capability down the line.

And when that happens, I’ll have no problem with folks labelling Hyuga et al. as aircraft carriers. Until then, no dice.

For my part I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Yes I believe it’s a wishlist from someone in Indonesian Mindef than any real interest.

Like the official who said a few months back that Indonesia was going to be operating 200 Flankers by 2025 or whatever. How about get a full operational squadron of anything and then we’ll talk? :rolleyes:

Indonesia will be a major player in the world order before too long, but it isn’t there yet. Walk before you run guys. :p

Wishfull thinking if anyone believes the SH will outlast the Typhoon in operational service. 😉

Which says nothing about the qualities of either as aircraft.

Anyone know what’s going on with Russia and SAR/MPA? Is the plan announced a couple years back to acquire Beriev A-42s to replace Il-38s and Be-12s dead or what? =/

The chopper got shot with a SAM, what more explanation need there be? :rolleyes:

Depending upon exactly what damage the SAM caused the fact that the helo was overloaded could well have contributed to the number/ratio of fatalities. Maybe if it’d only had 80 people on board it would’ve been able to auto-rotate to a relatively soft landing … outside the mine field. Or maybe not. Not likely we’ll ever be in a position to know.

Oh hell no! :diablo:

I agree …. the original was in no way excellent. :diablo:

Aliens, though, now that was an excellent sequel to an excellent film.

I’d be surprised if they didn’t opt for the CGI route in this day and age. Not that it’s a substitute for the real thing, but the financial argument is compelling. Also CGI would allow for shots difficult or impossible to pull off IRL.

Of course Lewis Page isn’t the only one to get confused with the whole Corvette thing. Yes you can put pretty much the same armament as a frigate on a smaller Corvette but then you need to look at how they are used and who uses them. By in large they are operated by navies who don’t do blue water operations and they keep them in coastal waters close to a base. This allows fairly basic crew facilities to be installed as the crewman will mainly sleep in barracks. Also means you can ditch the hanger as the helicopter will operate from the base and purely use the landing deck as a place to refuel or transfer personnel. Finally a Corvette can have a bare minimum air defence capability as they will operate under land based fighter cover. If you want to do anything out of area then you need something the size of a frigate or destroyer.

Something I’ve wondered is whether the upper ranges of the generous tonnage allowance – “up to 2000 tons” – for Australia’s future Offshore Combatant Vessels was laid down with the possibility in mind of their also supplanting the ANZAC frigates.