Problem with Silent Eagle is it has the same drag, same looks and same size as Eagle and potentially far less range on internal fuel. Boeing didnot change the front end either. every thing the same. There is now where mention of enhanced engine fittings into Silent Eagle. It has looks of 1970s fighter.
http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/6/1/c6f0b3f9-bc27-41e1-814e-1bae559f9113.Full.jpg
F-35 is larger, and heavier than F-16 with tails F-18 size. T-50 is not just smaller but far less draggy platform than Flanker but with similar internal fuel, stronger engines and internal+external load capacity. I would think operational altitude and weopon release speed of T-50 to be higher than latest Flanker

.

So the Ukrainian parts are crap?:rolleyes: And since when do parts decide the capability of an aircraft manufacturer? It’s their own design and development. If they wanted Antonov could source parts from countless Western manufacturers instead, but it’d mean moving away from their traditional vendor base in the ex-Soviet region and push up costs astronomically.

I didnot say Ukrainian parts are crap but they dont have exposure to western standards on the same scale as UAC or Russian skilled labor.
Nope Antonov cannot source parts from Western sources. as it has no money to order customized parts and western manufacturers will not spend there own money for customized parts for Ukrainian manufacture.
As i said Ukraine is in two boats at same time. Neither EU nor Russia is going to seriously invest in that country if it remain floating around.

And the best plane in the world can crash, so it means nothing. A number of Russian and Western airliners have crashed at some point or the other including the Tu-204.

I was merely point to the fact that Russia was trying to export Antonov not UKraine.

There will be simply no skill people available for An-70 production line in year 2014-2015 in reasonable quanities. As i said Ukriane cannot remain independent between two blocks.
That’s debatable. There are plenty of unemployed Ukrainian youth to train, and plenty of defence/aerospace professionals in want of work. Many of them even work in China and the West now, and I don’t think they’ll die of old age in 5 years.;)

Those unemployed people who has skills are employed outside Ukraine at much better pay scale in disperse fields there is no large scale programs for to train them at home projects.

Again, pray what does the engine have to do with it? The An-70’s engines serve its role and payload range quite well.

PD-14 is next generation engine for 21st century. There is no comparable effort for An-70.

Btw no matter how powerful the MTA’s engines are it’ll remain an MTA with max 20-22 ton payload. And if stretching the IL-476 would be no big deal why didn’t they do it for both the prototypes? In any case, as with MTA it’s in a different weight class altogether from the An-70.

so how IL-76 went from 40 to 60 tons?.

The MiG-29SMT got new wings, FBW and glass cockpit. That didn’t make it a brand new plane.

MIG-29SMT didnot get new wings or weopon stations. MIG-29SMT cannot have 10 weopon station of MIG-29M.

Look, man, ultimately there’s no way you’ll get me to agree that the An-70 and Antonov as a whole are inherently unviable and uncompetitive. Definitely not compared to the IL-476.

Let Volg Denpr order 40 to 50 An-70 and see if it is viable transport. Let Ruaf make there new A-100 AWACS based on An-70 and see if it is viable on time.

And yet Antonov is developing them with less funding than any of its Russian or Western counterparts. You finally see my point?

And that low funding will reflect in product and post product support.

I’m sure the RuAF hasn’t had any (publicly revealed) spares problems with its MiG-29 or Flanker fleet either. But the IAF(among other customers) has had. So yes, it’s a problem.

It will IAF own corruption problem and haggling on price. IL-76 is the most widely used tranport in service including China & Iran.

The An-70 is two-thirds through testing and there’s talk of putting it an production as early as next year.

It is just talk.

As for the IL-476, both prototypes are still under construction and I doubt they’ll fly before next year. And then there’s years of test flights and certification left to do. I doubt it’ll achieve serial production before 2016. And initial production rates are likely to be low, so 100 before 2020 is an impossibility.

IL-476 has been rolled. it is about to fly. there are 3 in simultaneous construction. stay tuned next few months.

Heck, if the An-70 proves to be effective enough in service the IL-476 may even end up sharing the fate of the IL-112. From 70 planned orders to cancellation halfway through test flights.:p
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-112

Turbo prop has no future. how many turbo props Boeing/EADS is building. Turbo prop is not some thing that any serious manufacture will waste time on it.

The An-148s are only being manufactured in Russia because of Russian funding and involvement(i.e. the parts) and because the production rate at AVIANT was too slow to meet demand. That doesn’t take away from Antonov’s capability in developing it despite their financial condition and lack of international collaboration compared to Sukhoi.

Production rate at Aviant is slow because Ukranian state is dysfunctional. it cannot properly allocate budget year after year. and it will lose further that ability as $200b in Aviation spending in Russia kicks in. and that is on top of the $776b weopon procurement. As i said the more Russia spends money. the less skill people available in other CIS countries.

http://belarusdigest.com/story/russia-takes-over-part-belarusian-army-7898
The salaries of Belarusian soldiers remain discouragingly low. Presently, a lieutenant receives about BYR 2-2.5 million (up to US$ 280) per month – six to seven times less than his counterpart in the Russian army
Many specialists go east to serve as contractors in the Russian army

It has the technical skill to build modern airliners like the An-148 that enjoy as much success(or more) in the international market than any of those ‘more advanced’ Russian airliners made by better-funded Russian design bureaus.

An-148 is advanced due to 70% of its parts comes from Russia. where Myanmar -148 got crashed?. .

Don’t downplay Antonov’s capability. It only lacks in funding. The An-70 is a more modern design than the IL-476, engines notwithstanding, and in any case doesn’t directly compete with either the MTA(20 ton class) or IL-476(60 ton class). Politics is the only reason it isn’t already in serial production now.

It is not just funding/Politics but Ukraine demographic crises are 6 times worse than Russia in year 2011. No prospect of funding to turn around it.
There will be simply no skill people available for An-70 production line in year 2014-2015 in reasonable quanities. As i said Ukriane cannot remain independent between two blocks.
IL-76 started at 40 tons. now it is at 60 tons. MTA engines are already more powerfull than KC-390 by 20%. It will start at 20 tons. and will end at 30 to 40 tons. It has same x-section as IL-476. elongating a plane is not big deal over long term.
It is myth that An-70 is more modern designed. IL-476 is suppose to get new wing and FBW with all glass cockpit.

BTW, as for the IL-476, there’s been talk of restarting production of years now and despite being a derivative of an older design it looks like the An-70 will beat it into production. As for market success, the IL-76 has had a poor reputation for spares and support(As seen with India bypassing Rosobernoexport to issue an international tender for spares) and I daresay that’s going to affect the sales somewhat. As of yet besides the RuAF there are no real customers. India and China were mentioned in the past, but they’ve both turned to other alternatives(C-17 and Y-20) now.:D

It takes alot of money and time to produce 21st century world certified transport. Ask Embarer. how much it is going to spend on KC-390 and almost 90% of its parts will be outside Brazil on which it does not have any IP control.
There is no problem with IL-76 spares except it is the most used transport in the world. Volga Denpr is commerical operator of IL-76 and it will order even more IL-476 once production runs up and running.
IL-476 will come in AWAC/Tanker etc and 100 before 2020 is very realistic figure. Unless you see production line prepared for An-70 at this place. there is no chance of An-70 being successful.

http://rt.com/programs/russia-close-up/birthplace-lenin-ulyanovsk-aviation/

as I always say, German Tiger was a way more sophisticated engineering creature than T-34-85
surprisingly, that ended bad for Nazis
what could Davidenko create having tens(!) times less in budget than Lockheed did have for ATF with engineering staff on payroll of 1000 bucks per month? an aircraft that reportedly three times cheaper that Raptor, targeted for agility (yes, may be in expense of ultra-LO), with weapon bays sized for much wider A-A and ATG nomenclature, with much more sophisticated (at least in plans) multi-band, multi-array radar system, electro-optical sensors, built-in EW and DIRCM
as any ‘first’ it will be a hard way of learning after years of aerospace industry in limbo – there were many problems and delays in program (and I expect more and don’t believe in overoptimistic IOC dates), but T-50 is destined to be a milestone in Russian fighter development

Avg wage at Knaapo production worker in 2012 is 30,500 rubles. more like 1100 dollar a month.
http://www.knaapo.ru/rus/news/archive/index.wbp?article-id=4D591A1E-4837-4B18-9098-0E5B945897A1

I highly doubt sukhoi designers & software specialists in Moscow will be making less.

Isn’t that what you are doing yourself, making your own assumptions? Where are you getting this illusion from that Israel requires Russian permission? Do you think Israel asked permission to conduct an air strike on a suspected Syrian nuclear site?
You are the one making this assumption that somehow Russia is going to protect Iran and establish a no-fly zone. That is pure armchair warrior speculation. Speculation based on a bizarre personal theory that Russia is somehow controlling the Arab world with its military via exercises. The Russian exercises are not going to influence anyone.

my assumption are pretty reasonable. Sarkozy has gone quiet after phone talk with Medevedev two weeks ago. Sarkzoy was the most hyper person regarding Syria/Iran. No one announce big exercises for no reason.
it may not be nuclear site. Syria neither has money nor technical ability for large scale industrial production. and some thing happened in past is not indication of future. Remember Soviet Union supported Saddam to be kick out from Kuwait. Do u think it willl happen again if Iran l Syria lob missile on Qatar or Kuwiait?. There is reason Russia got largest Oil field in southern Irak.
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12137

You really think that Russia can get that many bombers into the air at once and you think they have 2400 cruise missiles that actually work? You’re having a laugh. It’d lucky if they got 15 bombers and 100 cruise missiles off the ground at best case. No doubt they’d loose a strategic bomber or two aswell like in the Georgia conflict. Thats a terrible cartoon btw.

They used 30 bombers in previous exercises.
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Russia_Sends_Out_The_Nuke_Bombers_For_Week_Long_Exercises_999.html

Georgia bomber on recon mission. 2400 cruiss missile at most cost $1.2b. which is drop in bucket. subsonic missiles are way cheaper and faster to produce than Brahmos/Yakhont type.
if some one can export 200 to 400 Yakohont to Vietnam/Indonesia/Syria not to mention parts supply to couple of hundreds Indian Brahmos.etc.
producing couple of thousands subsonic cruise missiles are not big deal when there is unlimited money supply and automated manufacturing.
These are very reasonable estimate.

AFAIK, Russia is the main supplier of Syria. Even China isn’t supplying any major system and Iran… Well lol.
Because of International pressure, even Russia hasn’t supplied Syria with top notch systems.

It takes a lot of expanse and technological know how in order to correctly defend one airspace, specially in the face of overwhelming superiority. With 3 carriers, the US has enough aircraft and missiles to flatten Syria. Of course doing it in a “democratic” acceptable fashion is something else.

Presidential election in France and in the US is the best protection for Syria ATM. But how long ? is the question.

Russia can be convince to close its eyes…

Turkey is helping the West, I read rumour of French and British black op operating along the border, and I’m sure the “civilian opposition” is been armed as we speak.

It’s a game Syria cannot win in the long run. Like in Libya the govt. will be attacked and any retaliation will be branded as “massacre”, “disproportionate use of force” etc. What we need to keep in mind is that contestation is those countries are way more violent than in Europe, and the local govt. do not have a lot of fancy non lethal weapon.

Of course because it doesn’t suit their interest you won’t see the US closing its eyes like they did for Bahrain and SA.

Yakhont is top notch system and most expensive missile in the world. The problem is Syria is not simply competent enough to absorb more advanced systems on large quantities.

Turkey is not going to give huminitarian corridor either as long as Turkey is dependend on russian/iranian gas. It cannot do much more.
http://en.trend.az/regions/met/arabicr/1993151.html

Russians have been telling Arab league dont cross the red line as it is Russia that is restraining Assad against protester.
That 2012 Caucaus exerises are directly related to it. Russia did similar exercises before it invaded Georgia. but these are at much larger scale. even the largest in Russian/Soviet modern history at this location. I dont think Arab countries have seen Tu-160/TU-95 flying towards them.
Russia whole point is to discredit Arabs or lured them into a fight with Syria. who knows Su-27SM/MIG-31 waiting for them.

Arabs are not taking the bet at this point but if this thing continued for months or years. Arab world will simply implode due to inner contridictions & frustration.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20120218/171386077.html
Frustrated Arabs Urge Action From Russia

I am more curious about China position as this thing will raise Oil price alot for them.