However I think that you and others should contribute more with their opinions than just spent time and space in this thread to attack personally others that you and others does not agree.

Hi maurobaggio; I have appreciated your contributions in the past, but to be honest I too have not bothered to keep up with this thread lately, because it has been dominated by your negativity on matters that seem to be highly questionable, trivial, or at least well-trodden ground. Perhaps this is an unfair characterisation of your recent contributions, I am merely conveying my own fleeting impressions and how they relate to my (lack of) participation, but it seems others feel similarly. I think it will help when we have something new to discuss, either in terms of the flight of the first pre-production aircraft later this year, the emergence of more concrete details of the arrangements being made with Brazil, or whatever.

Personally I am looking forward to Indonesia’s decision in the next year or two, although Gripen still seems a rather distant prospect for that contract — mostly because the case for it requires more vision, dedication and coordination amongst various branches and departments of the Indonesian government than the comparatively simple option of handwaving through TNI-AU’s preference for Su-35.

Xinhua claims China’s defence budget to rise 10% over the previous reporting period:

BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) — China will raise its defense budget by around 10 percent this year, compared with last year’s 12.2 percent, a spokeswoman for the annual session of the country’s top legislature said Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference a day ahead of the Third Session of the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC), Fu Ying said the exact figure will be published in a budget report Thursday.

China’s defense budget rose by 12.2 percent last year, riding on a multi-year run of double-digit increases.

A growth rate of about 10 percent could be the lowest in five years.

Should push the official budget to $140-145bn and the SIPRI estimate past $200bn.

Why not move all the pinned magazine threads into a Sub-Forum?

I don’t think you’re going to get very far asking a publisher to minimise the promotion of its own products.

What great picture. No wonder there updating Mig-31s. Lets hope next interceptor design continues this trend. More stealth features, large ASEA. Would be a fast moving Awacs type control aircraft.

I can’t imagine how Russia could justify investing in a dedicated interceptor program. If there is to be a MiG-31 successor, I would hope that it would also be intended to complement and succeed Su-34/Tu-22M in the strike role.

So is this untested weapon hype or not?

No more than any other unproven system is hype. Even if DF-21D is not yet fully operational, there’s no reason to think it won’t become operational. The anti-ship ballistic missile is a linear extrapolation of technologies that China and the rest of the world have been working on for decades now. It is not as if China is claiming to have created T-1000 or the starship Enterprise.

Without a REAL WORLD test it is just a proposal.
Without a REAL WORLD test how can you refer to it as a “weapons system”?
What say you?

China claims to have some kind of operational capability with the system. Whether this is true or not doesn’t really matter, because there is no war just now. If the system is not yet functional, it will be functional soon enough. If the system is currently functional, it will be improved over the coming years, whether simply by increased numbers of deployed missiles, more resilient and flexible comms links, more sophisticated and robust ISR capabilities, etc.

In any case, it’s safe to assume that China will proceed with their ASBM program, as with everything else, according to their own judgment, requirements, and resources, and with no regard whatsoever for satisfying your standards or curiousity.

Many people believe that the DF-21D is hype.

“Many people believe” = “Roovialk believes”

One can argue that the significance DF-21D has been overhyped by tabloid media in both China and the US, but that is what tabloids do. Certainly Chinese planners do not consider DF-21D to be the answer to neutralising American supercarriers — it is merely one tool in the toolbox. Nonetheless it is safe to assume the China is continuing to research and implement improvements over the entire kill chain.

What’s changed? The IAF has a new order for C-130Js on the books and will be operate a full dozen by 2018 or so, with further orders expected to take the fleet size as high as 24 units. It still the most cost effective medium transport on the market, as reliable as any of its peers, can operate from all of the India’s high altitude bases and the IAF can achieve further savings by standardizing on the type.

No point to the KC-390 either. Aside from a higher cruise speed (by a margin of just 150kph) it doesn’t offer any advantage over the C-130J.

KC-390 is intended to be cheaper to operate than C-130J, and it has a greater payload cross-section also. Brazil could also well be more accomodating on technology transfer and local manufacture, because they stand to gain relatively more from the sale.

As for C-130J, that India already operates it in small numbers is actually disadvantageous when it comes to securing a good deal from LM. LM would rightly perceive that they are in the driver’s seat in such negotiations, and their offer would therefore not be as competitive as it would’ve been 5yrs ago. And of course, the design itself is 5yrs older than it was 5yrs ago, and alternatives such as KC-390 and even MTA are that much closer to fruition.

I am not saying that a large order of C-130Js with domestic production would be a terrible choice, or even that it is not the best choice, merely that it is a less compelling option than it would’ve been five years ago, when I would’ve unreservedly supported such a proposal. Certainly there needs to be serious consideration given to all available paths as they stand in 2015, and if there is any doubt over MTA — well, it is better to pull the plug late than never.