R-77 family, MICA family, TC-2 (?) from Taiwan, SD-something from China (probably SD-10), R-33/R-37, Derby excluded

:p R 77-the best missile in the world if you intend to score against airliner during the tests…
MICA-short range compared to the C 5 lofted profile(probably RF seeker comparable)…
SD 10, TC 12-non operational yet…
R 33- :p semi-active
R 37-dropped :p
“Derby excluded”-finally something wise :p

No no no, my friend.. It is YOU who has to find superior weapons to the rest of the world, not me. That easy to get I ain’t.

C 5-the best operational AAM

Compared to shooting down an aicraft with a cannon (under $5,000), yes it looks VERY expensive.

If the missile achieve a kill, than is a good investment.Otherwise, a cannon kill would imply a dogfight and dogfight is a great equaliser-you may drive an F 15C, an f 16 C or even an F 22 and get your ass kicked by a Mig 21…

You are forgetting one thing. Russkies have MUCH longer tradition in building high-performance airborne passive IR seekers than we Euros have, don’t see the point why the latest KOLS shall be inferior to Pirate.

It is only your personal anglo-saxon preference that lets you say *KOLS???!!! Made in Russia?! sheesh, forget it no way!!!!!*, but let us be honest, you know a sh!t about KOLS for your opinion to become objective

KOLS is a optical system (lens, scanning IR sensor) Pirate is an imaging array sensor… By the way, to avoid being accused of anglo-saxon prefference” i would rate OSF from Rafale much better than the KOLS :p …

Paul Metz must have been well paid by LM PR dept. For a house in Florida, Ferrari F360 and two local beauties on Hawaii as a bonus I would say anything, too..

Makes me wonder why we only hear superlatives about Typhoon’s capabilities from Maurizio Cheli, Wolfgang Schirdewahn or Chris Worning, superlatives about Rafale from Eric Gerard, superlatives about Su-3x from Anatoliy Kvochur or Yevgeniy Frolov.

That not the point; what he said (and I have no reason to suspect him of lying), is that the Raptor did passed the IR signature tests… That what ‘s important.

1) If Chinese GDP is measured in PPP then it would rake 2nd or 3rd

…It would be the second largest with 7.(or, 😉 )700 bn$…[QUOTE]

but pegging isn’t all that bad since it protects the currency and creat stability

not to mention that the underevaluation of yuan helps exports…

However the Chinese economy grows at a atonishing rate of 9% a year and that will continue for at least a decade and that will make her surpass the EU in GDP in a very optimistic forecast or at least catch up with the EU`s GDP in a moderate forecast in less than two decades

In the 80′ the same was said about Japan (if Japan would keep the growth rate it will surpass US in 10 years; but Japan did not manage to keep this rate…)

The figures given for the SA-10/SA-12 in the 1997-1998 almanac for the german magazine Military technology is 100 SA-12s for the army, and 2,000 systems of SA-10 and SA-12 for the PVO or air defence forces for the Russian federation alone. Belarus also had SA-12s, the Ukraine army and air defence forces also had SA-10 and SA-12s in service in numbers. The 95-96 almanac also lists 2,000 SA-10/SA-12 systems for the Russian federation PVO alone.

Are you shure that there are 2000 systems? the number seems very high. According to Global security, India purchased 6 SA300 systems with 1 bn. $. That means that 2000 systems (PVO) would have cost Russia over 300 bn. $
May be 2000 missiles?

SRAAM and BVRAAM are damn near mutually exclusive. I could see a two-stage AAM operating without the booster as a short range AAM- maybe

Yes and no.
The 120 C 5 has been delivered with 70 deg. off-boresight capability (corresponding with the off-boresight coverage of the f 15 APG 63(V)1).

May be that NK and SK have ‘K’ in common was reason enough for them to attack

yeah sure…

China would only launch military ops against Taiwan if certain openly stated conditions were violated (or if a more extreme regime came to power to China – highly unlikely). These include:

a.) Taiwan declares independence
b.) Taiwan is under threat of foreign military intervention
c.) Taiwan descends into internal political strife.

I hope the Beijing will not consider the usual K 1 fights in the Taiwanese parliament as political strife :diablo:

Carlos is very good with equipment stats, capability and facts

He could be, but he presents facts in a distorsioned way. For example, in his crusade for F 22 he usually try to show how unsuitable is the F/A 18 for Australia. In doing so he compares the combat radius of the Hornet in low altitude bombing mission (~300 Nmiles) with the combat radius of the Flanker in air-to-air mission (~900 Nmiles) and the conclusion is that the Flanker has a combat radius 3 times bigger than the Hornet… He also ignores the fact that the non-navalised Aussie version is more agile and accelerates better than the USN version. He compare the NEZ of the AMRAAM with the kinematic range of the R 77 and he concludes that the R 77 has twice the range of the AMRAAM, and so on…

and give the United States more to ponder as it figures out how to deal with Venezuela.

Long-range, heavily armed Su-27s in the FAV’s possession, however, would complicate any U.S. military intervention in the region. Air superiority — gaining and maintaining total control of the air over the battlefield — is essential to U.S. military planning. In any U.S. operation against Venezuela, the formidable defensive obstacle presented by squadrons of Su-27s would have to be overcome before air superiority could be achieved.

If Chavez believes that two squadrons of Su 27 would stop US from invading Venezuela (if US would really consider this), he has serious mental problems…

Venezuela shoud better stick with beauty contest, this is the best they can do:D

Read Khrushchev’s memories if you don’t believe me, he explains perfectly why he thought the Hungarian invasion was justified whereas he didn’t think the same of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia

Khuscheov memoirs are the ultimate truth? Saddam plans to edit his from the prison. You bet the the attack of Iran,the crimes against Kurds and Shia,the invasion of Kuweit will be “perfectly explained” and justified…

Even though the US might not have planned an invasion of Iran in the past, you can’t deny that the US intentions could well have been percieved as hostile during, for example, the 1980s. And today just as well.

The facts are that until Iran started its nuclear program, not in a single ocasion did US mass forces at Iran border,draw plans for an invasion or even speakofan attack. The Airbus incident was regretable,but unlike the hostage taking of UA diplomats, not planed or even wanted.