Is there a comprehensive record of IAF aircraft accidents anywhere? I’m particularly interested in the number of MiG-29s lost to date.

Have you tried this site?

http://www.warbirds.in/crashes.html

Here is my thoughts on the matter:

Pilot skill is perishable and if the US intends to maintain its fighter pilot proficiency then it needs to find a stop gap measure. Meanwhile, in China, around the same time, hundreds of J-7s, many still in relatively decent shape are slated to retire. Here we have a Supply and Demand match, although politically cannot be accepted BUT – a bit of refurbishment and some changes could allow for a 5 year lease to the USAF. A win-win for everybody, the USAF keeps its force structure intact, China gets rid of old fighter planes and some smart chap who makes the deal happen gets a ton of gold. Later, the planes can be demilitarized and sold to civilian customers worldwide.

And you wonder why no one takes you seriously?

Not unless they want to be lacking for what they need when they need it.

Could, woulda, shoulda is the cry of those who lost the battle, not the winners.

If you do not have it, but find out that you need exactly what some one else said you do not, letting others tell you what you need has just rewards.

A lot of soldiers died in “Nam because some paper writer decided that those who actually have to fight wars did NOT NEED x,y and z in his narrow minded self-centered little world.

Using that logic, every country, no matter how big or small, how rich or poor, should have nuclear weapons…you know, just in case. However, in reality and using a little common sense, things are a little different.

IIRC, at no point during the conflict did the Sri Lankan airforce need to intercept and destroy any fast jet fighter that the Tamil Tigers never had. At the most, the Sri Lankan airforce intercepted and destroyed a handful of light prop planes that the Tamils acquired, and even then it was a one sided affair, they could have easily done the job with something like the K-8, let alone Kfirs and J-7s. If in the unlikely event Sri Lanka faces a much larger and more heavily armed opponent in the region, and realistically that can only be India, then there is no conceivable way Sri Lanka would ever be in a position to take on said opponent using conventional means anyway. Which brings me back to the original point, perhaps Sri Lanka should invest in a nuclear weapons programme…you know, just in case.

If by your bad luck you are a muslim then expect them to throw you in jail,call you a terrorist and then throw away the key.

So much for the largest “democracy” then.

its a ratio, not actual unit number.
the idea is that jf-17 is supposed to out number the flankers.

Well, even on this point, it seems you’ve got it wrong. The PAF is supposed to get anything between 150-250 JF-17s, while the IAF is expected to induct close to 300 Su-30MKI, so the JF-17 was never meant to outnumber the Su-30MKI by 2 to 1, if anything, it’s the other way round, 2 Su-30MI for 1 JF-17! lol

What are your sources? Pakistani? Western (Cold War)? Official Indian sources tell otherwise. There are big disparities.

Are you are saying PAF had upper hand, yet Pakistan kept on loosing Wars?

http://www.acig.info/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=162&Itemid=47

http://www.acig.info/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=171&Itemid=47

http://www.warbirds.in/Crashes/crpage.php?qacid=AL&qafdb=IAF&datesall=ON

http://www.warbirds.in/Crashes/crpage.php?qacid=AL&qafdb=PAF&datesall=ON

A-Darter (Agile-Darter) is an agile within visual range AAM that is in the final process before induction next year.
Perhaps SRAAM is more accurate, as it will have a range of about 20km or more.

The only BVRAAM used by South Africa was the R-Darter (Radar-Darter).
This was a joint project with Israel, with their missile called Derby, and South Africas called R-Darter.
There are some differences as far as I know, as when the missile was mature, their paths diverged slightly.
I’ve no idea whether Pakistan got any R-Darters.

Currently, there is a new BVRAAM called Marlin, that is said to be almost ready for industrialisation, and that has within the last 2 months been offered to Brazil for joint production along similar lines to the A-Darter.

The wings on the Pakistani Mirage III’s seem to be the original design, with the leading edge slot.
This is not to say Pakistan didn’t get South African zero-timed wings though.

When the Cheetah first came about, it was specifically said that it had a new wing spar, designed with 50% greater life than the original Dassault spar.
It was specifically said at the time that part or all of the Cheetah upgrades were available for export to Mirage III operators.

My mistake, I was indeed referring to the R-Darter and not the “A” model. I guess the mystery continues on whether the PAF managed to get any R-Darters. I know the PAF managed to acquire a significant amount of spares from Libya, France and Lebanon, but have yet to see any wing on their ROSE upgraded Mirages, other than the original wing design, so not sure if they also managed to get “zeroed” wings from other sources as well. Having said that, and considering the amount of time, effort and resources the PAF have committed to upgrading their Mirage fleet, they couldn’t ignore all the work that was done in SA, particularly in terms of structural life extension.

Here is the ventral fairing/space on the Cheetah C that was originally allocated on the Mirage III to the rocket pack, or the extra fuel tank.

In the Cheetah C, part of that space is used for chaff/flares/EW equipment, with an additional smaller fairing to the side. I’ve noticed a similar smaller fairing on the Pakistani ROSE upgrade.[/URL]

Thanks for the great close-up pic. Indeed, the PAF ROSE Mirages also use a similar setup, with additional smaller fairings on the rear fuselage, as shown in the pic I posted on previous page. It’s quite remarkable how far the potential of the Mirage III/5 airframe was being pushed, and I still think it had plenty of life left in it. Some years ago, SAGEM was showing of an AASM capability on a PAF ROSE airframe, but not sure whatever happened to that. And the PAF Air Weapons Complex (AWC) was also working on an IRST for Mirages, but not sure how far this advanced or whether it was used as a sensor in a weapon.