No doubt? So you are sure then and you must have a source, right? I mean, such a thing surely must have had wide media coverage. In fact, there should be 10-15 threads in this very forum discussing the end of cold war and the visit of a russian premier to western military factory. right?

At the 14 of December last year, Zelin indeed visited Saint Dizier air base and indeed was shown off to the Provence 1/7’s simulator, so I have to recall at the visiting part of the above statement.

Truth be said.

I cant wait to see what the coming weeks bring. This is almost as much fun as the first pictures of the flanker appearing in the west back in the 80s 🙂

You mean something like this?

http://www.dia.mil/history/art/images/soviet_jets.jpg

Yeah, those were nice times indeed. :):)

PM Putin was in France recently where he signed several MoUs with French corporations (including Thales), not doubt he visited Dassault with a high-ranking military delegation, and the above is one of their tourist pics.

PAK-FA fever is highly contagious.

No doubt? So you are sure then and you must have a source, right? I mean, such a thing surely must have had wide media coverage. In fact, there should be 10-15 threads in this very forum discussing the end of cold war and the visit of a russian premier to western military factory. right?

But then again, there is no cameraman, no photographer, no civilians in the picture, and the picture itself is probably taken concealingly with a cell phone.

Hint: In a few years, no, months actually, when tha damn thing will have flown and everybody will know how it is like, people will refer to this very thread with a mix of admiration, condemn and pity for those who saw its first picture of the PAK-FA and thought it was the… rafale’s sim. :diablo:

And on it you can see RAFALE written above !!! looks like a duck , quacks like a duck …

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/KHdV6UTlHJ5KLm9ZKt6gkg

PS: and since when the russians talk in knots???

Care to elaborate? Who said anything about knots and rafale writings??? 😮

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3YIzKz8w7aYqeIgs_EkV2g

^^^Judging from this picture, I would say it is certainly not the rafale simulator. Just check the side of it, at the point where the airframe widens to host the canards. Not existent in the PAK-FA picture, whether a simulator or not.

The scenario of Zelin visiting France makes sense, but I don’t think this is the rafale’s simulator.

Actually no AFAIK. The plane was found, but not the pilot, so presumably he managed to eject.

Edit: Here is a link

KHABAROVSK, January 15 (Itar-Tass) — The Su-27 fighter that disappeared from radar screens in the Far East on Thursday was found crashed 20 kilometers away from Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Friday, the Far Eastern Air Force said adding the pilot has not been found so far.

I wonder about the name you mentioned though. I have seen it elsewhere too, but the article claims that the air force did not name him.

The Air Force said the pilot was experienced and well-trained, but did not identify him.

And all of these is not really surprising at all. The OSF’s identification capability has been proven in other exercises before and if visual ID is required it’s certainly going to be of significant importance as not many aircraft pose such a capability at all.

AFAIK, the AdA was not very happy with the performance of OSF in the first place and asked for an updated variant, so its production stopped untill something better came up. Is this not the case? ???

F-15 pilots used an optical identification system called EagleEye during ODS which allowed for visual ID at distances up to 30 km, but it appears to have been some kind of binocular. The sole western fighter featuring a dedicated camera for vis ID before was the F-14 with its TCS. PIRATE is claimed to provide a similar ID capability, though it’s unknown wether this capability is available right now and wether the claimed performance is matched.

An IRST can be very useful and more and more air forces seek this cabability for their fighters in several different approaches, the super hornet for example will get one attached in its centerline fuel tank.

Western powers have not heavily adapted such systems however, although they are far from unfamiliar with them. I don’t know why, perhaps it’s because they had developed an air combat philosophy and tactics not relying on passive identification.

I am curious as to what level of ToT and collaboration the French is willing to offer. France is very special in that it is one of extremely few countries in the world that is quite independent when it comes to military equipment; add to that the nuclear dimension, and France is up there with the US, Russia, China, and no others! Quite impressive for a nation of that size.

Actually, France has a substantial amount of equipment in its arsenal which is either directly procured from aboard, or developed in colaboration with other countries. They is hardly 100% indepedent, even though they do have an admirable defence industry.

However it is costly and although France has been good at selling stuff I guess that perhaps they also realize that the independence on military equipment side can become too expensive?

Better rephrased as “it is increasingly costly”. Indepedence and self reliance has a price, understandably, but up to a certain point. Defence equipment is procured in continuously smaller numbers with far larger prices…

Brazil should be a bit careful; as demonstrated during the Falklands war, France has in the past chosen old allies and sacrificed a customer…

Good point, but then again, so has the US, and everybody else. Sweden has’n AFAIK, mainly because of its neautrality leading them to sell only to selected customers. But it’s no guarantee for the future. I don’t think Thai Air Force can rest assure that their Gripens will always have support if say dictatorship returns at some point or there is a major human rights violation.

Buying arms is always a risk. Only safe solution is to make your own arms, but not even large superpowers can fully achieve this.