Insane Images

Guy, if you’re going to include a 22MB JPEG (or even an 8MB JPEG, the smallest of your images) please link to them with appropriate warning, rather than posting in the main thread. Not only is it a bandwidth issue for people on metered/mobile connections, it’s a browser performance issue too!

Incidentally, all the megapixels in the world can’t make the F-35 pretty. I’m sure Chinese analysts appreciate it, though.

LOL, but there were proposals that Turkey is to undertake Greeces 1.6bil € debt or provide zero interest loan should Greeks accept, in the hopes of “earning the friendship of Greek people and turn the Aegean Sea into a sea of peace”. Since the offer is made by Kurdish People’s party, I would assume it is sincere, but if we look at the past few incidents, Greeks are simply too proud to accept any help from us.

If Erdogan wants to cement himself as the second great leader of the 21st century (Putin indisputably being the first) such a bold and grand gesture with the potential to alter the dynamic of such a problematic relationship would be one way of doing that.

Next month’s headlines, today…

Lockheed Martin engineer disciplined after helmet latency issues traced to high-resolution pornography.

USAF Test Pilot concerned that key F-35 components appear to be made out of Lego: “My daughter has one of these at home.”

Pentagon Whistleblower: JSF an “April Fool’s prank” that “got out of hand”.

Confessions of a Lockheed Martin executive: F-35 inspired by data stolen from Japanese anime studios.

A pretty significant development in the PRC’s engine program.

The medium trust ws-13 is coming out of the shadows soon? This would power the J-31 as well as the JF-17.

Sharp Sword UCAV is another potential application, assuming the current airframe is not simply a demonstrator for an eventual larger platform powered by WS-10/15.

Surely folding fins would be part of any space-constrained solution?

A simpler explanation is that the current effort is coasting on bureaucratic inertia generated with MoUs signed a decade ago, back when the PAK FA was actually in early-development.

That is entirely possible and even probable. But why fuss about it? If a development contract no longer makes sense, then a development contract will likely not be forthcoming.

As far as Modi & Co. are concerned, the truncated MMRCA deal (‘worst of both worlds’) indicates that its quite possible for ‘decisiveness’ to take priority over ‘plain logic’.

I do not think any more highly of the Rafale deal than you do, nonetheless it demonstrates that Modi and co. are prepared to deviate from the existing script as circumstances demand. Unnecessarily paying out billions for a non-productive co-development contract would fall into precisely that category.

With the MKI program we saw aircraft delivered in several batches with slightly different configurations. This was in the news recently with problems with some Russian component fitted to only one batch of MKIs.

Given how much water has gone under the bridge in terms of PAK FA development, I think it is quite possible that we will see a similar batch approach to FGFA production/delivery, with the first incorporating only minor changes and more substantial changes left for later, perhaps with the possibility/intention of retrofitting the first batch at MLU.

Acknowledging that the sensor fusion approach makes such substitution more difficult, requiring a greater degree of access as well as mote expensive/time-consuming, certainly a degree of indigenisation will still be possible and I think it is in Russia’s long-term interest to enable and encourage such developments as India wishes to embark upon.

I’m somewhat skeptical about the trajectory of Indo-Russian relations in light of Russia’s blossoming ties with China and remarkably enthusiastic outreach to Pakistan. Even the PAK FA/FGFA has reportedly run into tech transfer hurdles. I think the days of Russian technical assistance may be numbered, though of course they’d be as willing to sell an SSN as the British and French.

The Indo-Russian relationship is well understood by both parties. Russia has no interest in a subservient relationship with China, even as their interests align in opposition to American hegemony and western interventionism. Indeed, India is valuable to Russia as a long-term counter-weight to China. Improving relations with Pakistan have to do with taking advantage of the souring US-Pakistan relationship and also with Russia’s issues with Islamic-flavoured unrest in e.g. Dagestan, and present no issues for New Dehli. Unlike western nations with their Manichean view of the world, diplomats in China, Russia, and India all understand the multifaceted nature of international relationships.

As for the days of Russian technical assistance being numbered, I would argue it is quite the opposite. India has been burned these past few years in its experiences with western companies: MMRCA, Scorpene, nuclear & trade negotiations, and attentions are shifting back to Russia. The items of military-industrial cooperation actually signed for during Modi’s recent visit to the US were almost laughably inconsequential: a hand-held drone and a cargo delivery/parachute package. Moscow is not exactly losing sleep at night.