I don’t think Russia will send Su-34 to Syria as they more need them at home and even less, that RuAF will use them in low altitude diving against ISIS using unguided rockets and bombs. Most probably those pictures in Theaviationist are from Aviadarts competition, where pilots use only unguided rockets and bombs without using radar and optics as it is competition of pilot skills, not plane capabilities.

If they will send planes, they will send Su-24M2 and they are more than enough to effectively bomb ISIS.

Wait a minute!!

Does this mean there are MKI’s flying around With fake fan blades installed!?

I would say those fan blades are produced in numbered batches. It take time to produce them. If they stole few hundred of blades, they have to replace them with something that no one will notice that real blades are missing. With such numbers missing few engines less could be build. If those blades are imported from Russia, than you could bet they are in exact number.

I think Libya

I don’t think so. Libya is not important for Russia, Syria and Iraq are. They could be for Syrian AF to replace their lost Su-24 jets or for Iraqi AF to make deeper strikes on ISIS inside Iraq. Who ever will get them, they will bomb ISIS.

There we others earlier in the thread, but just off the bat:

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-03-17/news/60211815_1_defence-minister-manohar-parrikar-sukhoi-engines

On another note:

http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/HAL-Technician-Held-for-Stealing-Sukhoi-Blades/2015/03/17/article2717400.ece

I did not see this before. Wtf??
Between this and “impure” fuel….

During investigation, police seized over 198 Sukhoi aero engine blades and other parts from Pradhan’s residence at Semiliguda. During interrogation, police came to know that Pradhan, who has a workshop at Semiliguda, used to supply the blades to a private company.

Police seized 198 original Sukhoi engine blades and other parts. Who knows, how many of them, which police didn’t find, are build in somewhere and how many of those original parts are replaced by ****ty Indian parts not even made in HAL, but by some private companies, which are not producing jet engines. IAF have a big luck, that there are not much more Su-30MKI crashes, considering how irresponsible HAL is. IAF have to take all Su-30MKI from the service and replace the engines with original Russian engines and Sukhoi have to double the price for engines and HAL must pay the price.

So that new OES-52…is made in cooperation with SAGEM. Interesting to see how the political situation effects this.
Looks like the Russian AF is going to continue buying the GOES-451 for now, UOMZ had a contract for 79 sets in late 2014.

Wonder how the performance of the two sets compares. OES-52 relies on mirrors for vertical stabilization, and overall looks to be quite a bit lighter and less draggy.

I think OES-52 will be for export Ka-52 helicopters. GOES-451 have 6 windows and they are all full of different cameras, sensors and laser devices. Most probably Russia doesn’t want to export GOES-451 and France will have no problem to sell OES-52 to Egypt.

A really superb set of photos from Domna, re. Su-30SMs.

Different set in each link:

http://su-30sm.livejournal.com/1780.html

http://su-30sm.livejournal.com/1214.html

http://su-30sm.livejournal.com/963.html

http://su-30sm.livejournal.com/1403.html

Excellent pictures. I only wonder if Su-30SM is too big for shelters in Domna as there is no picture of Su-30 inside the shelter.

I asked the photograph author in specific whether it isnt a RSK MiG frame (ie testing); he said Korotkov said specifically it is MiG-35D for export.

Now we could only guess, who the secret customer is…

I was thinking UPG as well. Nothing lines up within the time frame. If it was indeed new builds for Iraq, we would have seen Iraqi pilots training on MiG-29M/M2s in Russia by now, and some sign that 6 new builds are around the corner.

The customer is so secret, that his pilots and ground personal could not be seen on training… Who could hide the best between Russians?

@ Berkut + Medo:

I was thinking UPG as well. Nothing lines up within the time frame. If it was indeed new builds for Iraq, we would have seen Iraqi pilots training on MiG-29M/M2s in Russia by now, and some sign that 6 new builds are around the corner.

Speaking of MiG:
http://www.vpk-news.ru/news/26691

MiG is planning to start RVV-BD testing next year on the MiG-35.
Further, they are testing a targeting pod, I presume the one we saw pics of earlier.

UPG are not new build planes, but only modernization kits, which are sent to India for modernization of their MiG-29 planes. Also MiG already sent 10 UPG kits to India this year, so this 6 planes are still a mistery. Maybe they are for RuAF and contract for them was kept in secret or it is foreign customer and again contract was kept in secret as well as maybe training of the pilots. Than again, only Iraq come to my mind, as they made some contracts with Russia for weapons, but not everything is clear, what they buy. If they will be delivered this year, than we will soon see, where they will go.