Sauron- All Flogger is suggesting is that Latin America has alot more to benefit by recieving technical assistance from countrys like Russia, Ukraine and China than it does from the US, and you go off about how he is suggesting that the US is suppressing economic development and other nonsense about nuclear proliferation. There is nothing wrong with Latin American countrys developing aerospace technology on their own. And the fact that youre freaking out about it DOES suggest some kind of paranoia you have about the idea of these countrys becoming self suficient and no longer dependent consumers of US technology.

Flogger- In the case of Mexico, lack of telecomunications development is certainly not for lack of Money. Unfortunately Telmex seems to have quite a monopoly on the telecomunications of Mexico. So despite the fact that Mexicans pay the same amount monthly for cellphones as in the US, they only recieve a small fraction of the talk time and lower quality. I think the Spanish company Telefonica has invested alot in Latin American telecomunications privatization, but has not greatly benefited local infrastucture.

Wachenroder- Youve been going on for a long time about how the su-25 and A-10 are armored and designed to be more surviveable against damage than normal combat jets. In the case of the su-25, yes it is does have a small amount of added armor to protect critical engine systems against missile damage, and the pilot armor. But its not like the engineers decided to make the entire aircraft structure stronger than normal by making the metal structures thicker. Their simply isnt any leeway at all to allow that as heavier than normal structural weight requires further structural reinforcement to bear that extra weight, which results in an never ending increasing spiral of weight growth. A plane like the A-10 is built exactly like any other jet. And jets like the Yak-130 or L-159 which you think are so delicate, are built almost as strong as fighters, in that they must withstand the 500 kt, 7+ g type manuevering that fighter jets do. Fast jets in general are built very strong and it takes very destructive munitions to do critical damage to them. If youre really serious about ground attack capability, you should take a second look at the A-6 intruder. Now thats a jet that carry a huge warload and very long range for the same engine power as the su-25.

Anyone got info on this aircraft? AFAIR it’s a civilian aircraft

http://www.avtechgroup.com/index.htm

maximum range while carrying the maximum combat load plus two drop tanks is 400 nm (750 km) at low level or 675 nm (1250 km) at altitude. Let’s see how the Yak-130 fairs carrying it’s maximum combat load, and drop tanks.

You got to be kidding, 400nm – 675nm range, and you call that good? Were talking range here, not radius. Better hope anything youre attacking isnt 200nm away from your airfield.

Besides, I would not say the Yak-130 and M-346 are a joke, sure for Air COmbat they are not the best, for for other roles like Strike and CAS they will do very well for, especially for the type of weapons athey carry, how many of them and for their relatively very modern avionics. All tey lack is radar, BVR, full defensive suite and a few things to make em decent fighters.

What do you think about the Brazilian AMX? I heard they are offering a trainer version of that, and Im sure it has better combat abilitys than the M-346.

Thats interesting you dont have any of that ugly P*ss looking reflective yellow glow on the fuselage when you fire your guns.

Whens it going to ship?