this is Vikramaditya smoke which suppose to have new internals. I don’t see that will be problem for MIG-29K and Ka-52K. I am not sure about Su-33. if it was in bad shape they would not be sending it there for 6 months and get embarrassed for not functioning property.

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?107838-INS-Vikramaditya-Steaming-towards-Induction/page27

there is also lack of support and Mosul is less than 100 mile from Kurd region. if these people have invited Russia. this Mosul will be taken in first few months of 2014. than going down from North to South. the whole way of fighting war is different.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iraqi–kurdish-forces-say-they-feel-let-down-by-level-of-us-led-air-support/2016/10/21/f37b0b02-97c2-11e6-9cae-2a3574e296a6_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_airsupport851pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Iraqi, Kurdish forces say they feel let down by level of U.S.-led air support

they want to increase retention bonus to $50k per year. I wouldn’t be surprise half to a million dollar salaries.

http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2016/10/11/fighter-pilot-shortage
U.S. Officials Call Fighter Pilot Shortage A ‘Crisis’

Obama also increased cost of living like housing/rents/healthcare/education/water rates/tax rate/Public-private debt such that 16.2% return on stocks has no meaning for country nor for its people. Russian stocks are real function of the economics. Obama certainly does not understand hard science and creating full cycle industrial supply chain. and where to use critical labor. Obama is lucky that Putin is not hitting Middleast harder.

that was a year before Syria. who is the superman now?.

http://www.ibtimes.com.au/us-will-easily-defeat-russia-under-vladimir-putin-because-smarter-leadership-ipads-barack-obama
U.S. Will Easily Defeat Russia under Vladimir Putin Because Of Smarter Leadership and iPads Barack Obama

Obama declared in an interview with NPR that America is far better than Russia because of two things – the U.S. enjoys smarter leadership and it has the iPad, the latter symbolises the robust and multi-dimensional economy of the United States.

They rely on oil. We rely on oil and iPads and movies and you name it,” the president stressed.

Smarter leadership

Paired with the above edge is the U.S. leadership that operates smarter within the mechanics of democracy.

Obama offered that the same does not apply with Russia, most notably with Putin calling the shots.

He observed that perhaps in the recent months, Putin had successfully cultivated the strong image of a bully and even a genius as “he had outmanoeuvred all of us, and he had bullied, and strategized his way into expanding Russian power.”

Yet with the Russian rouble losing value by the day and the country’s economy appears to be following suit, Putin’s superman status appears to be considerably weakening.

Just compare quality of Moscow subway to Washington trains. Russia infrastructure is trusted. no bad water or cities built over earthquake zone or overcrowded airports. reasonably tough approach to law and order.

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2016/10/133_216339.html
Samsung signs transportation partnership with Russian Railways

This will allow the Korean tech titan to cut transportation costs massively when delivering products to Eastern European countries. The railway system is also expected to reduce transport time to the region to only 18 days, a significant drop from some 35 days when the company used marine transportation, Samsung Electronics said Tuesday.

“We are going to diversify our transportation routes by teaming up with Russian Railways and establish more distribution networks to prepare for unexpected global risks,” the company said

indeed. with allies like these who needs enemies

China is extremely weak ally. allies are measured by using joint force.

Pak-fa is very important for the Russian industry because it allowed them to physically create features of a fifth generation fighter and experience its reality, benefits and limitations. There is much to learn from such an experience.

But we need to face realities too. its gdp is only slightly higher than Australia and growth is in the negatives, meaning it’ll become like Australia and maybe to Spain. It cannot afford the program. It may end up being like India and Tejas. It is a good experience and new knowledge gained. They need to save money now and get the su-35, and then use the knowledge of pak-fa to develop a full 5th generation fighter in the future when the economy is better. China is doing all it can to save the Russian economy. The J-31 is also an option for Russia to consider.

Russia does not need to save money on weopons. . Russia low unemployement and high diversified economy allow it employ the best brain on military systems development. it need to overspend to built deployable weopons faster. T-50 is no deployable yet.
China is creating debt in the society and Russia will be getting the money.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1010109.shtml
Russia gains popularity among Chinese holidaymakers
Among overseas travel destinations, visits to Russia rose by over 103 percent – the third most popular overseas destination for Chinese tourists behind South Korea and Japan.

After the US brough down Saddam, all sorts of radical Sunni Islamists poured into Iraq to fight them and Syria was in fact a conduit for them since the Assad regime used them hoping to kick the US out of Iraq fearing they might bring him down next (the regime also released its own radical Islamists from the prisons to fight the US in Iraq). IS known then as Al Qaeda in Iraq entered the same way. The US managed to defeat them by paying the local Sunni tribes to fight the Islamist groups in their areas rather than US or government troops (the “Sunni Awakening”). After being defeated, some fled to Syria to regroup, but most were imprisoned e.g. in Camp Bucca with a lot of non-Islamists. Here they actually organized themselves and formed the backbone of the future IS. When the US released all the prisoners en-masse, they went to their homes, but were actually waiting to be contacted when the IS comeback occurs. Later, when Maliki kicked the US out of Iraq, stopped paying the Sunni tribes and removed Sunni and Kurdish ministers from his government, the stage was set for an easy comeback of experienced and organized IS since the corrupt and inefficient Iraqi army simply melted away in front of them (with the Kurds and Sunnis deserting not wanting to fight for the Shia government).

Turkey had a basically free trade with Syria. Assad visited Ankara 2004. Turkish trucks could pass Syria for any other arab countries unhindered. and most of fugitives from Irakis courts are staying in Turkey. Turks are masters of playing one arab country against other. I will not be surprised if they Turkey did not masterplan this Irak failure. Putin respect Erdogan for his strong leadership and is template for bombing other countries.