Flex or Arthur or anybody, do you know the timing and circumstances of the Mirage 2000B in South African markings? I would guess that the French were trying to sell it to them. Thanks.

It took me 45 minutes to download over my dialup but that was an awesome video, thanks.

Furthermore Western aircraft are too complicated and too expensive to be operated by many third world operators.

…Realistically the bulk of the world needs fighters in the catagory of the FC-1 or JF-17, not expensive Eurocanards.

Complexity is not a problem. The latest Western jets are eaisier to fly and maintain than earlier aircraft. Compare the pilot workload in a Mig-19 or Mig-23 to the workload in the Gripen or EF. The latter are significantly easier to fly. As for the FC-1, its a good, streamlined plane; and probably a lot of First World airforces should give it a serious look. But don’t be suprised if the FC-1 requires more service.

Great vid, thanks.

F-35 if they could stick to the original price. Assuming that won’t happen, the J-10 wins.

Originally posted by BME330
Crap air forces? for example Equatorial Guinea, a nice Falcon 900 for the dictator, a second hand An-32, and that´s all…

Gabon looks like USAF compared with Equatorial Guinea

Mauritania also has a small air force with Britten Norman Defender, SF-260 and a couple of Z-9 helos

Zimbabwe now is in horrible conditions, like many afican countries

Zimbabwe is really unfortunate. In the late 1990s they still had a capable airforce. It was the Zimbabwe AF that pretty much saved the Kabila regime in DR Congo in 1998. They did an awesome job of destorying rebel forces on the ground that were approaching Kinshasa.

But the worst AF in Africa, relative to resources, might be Nigeria. The military regime from 1980s-1999 had little interest in building/maintaining/training a good force. They have enough mone to have a solid 60-100 fast jet force, but unitl recently the AF hasn’t been considered improtant.

Okay, I was still a supporter of the F-22 at $200 million or so, but the price has now officially reached immoral amounts. With millions of citizens without healthcare, jobs, or good educations, $300 mill per plane is sick.

There is an option. What we need now is licensed production of the Rafale. Seriously. Aside from being the most beautiful plane in the world, it has all the power the US needs to remain unbeatable (when combined with our other assets).

The benefits: 1) We get a supremely capable omnirole aircraft 2) France becomes our b_tch because of all the money we’ll be sending over there 3) We can pay for the Rafale imports with F-15 exports 😀

Some of those nuke estimates look very low, especially Israel. Most estimates I’ve seen give Israel between 200-400 nukes, maybe more (they may have actually surpassed the UK).

But, IIRC, the Drudge people are more right wing so they would want to downplay the number of nukes Israel has.