It would still be cheaper to buy new 4th gen than upgrade F-86’s as they are out of production for decades now and spares would be next to impossible to buy, also the research and development costs of the upgrade would be huge and the airframes would need huge work done to them as they would be so old and would need inspections more regularly than modern fighters.The reason India went ahead with their upgrade was because they had such a huge fleet of MiG-21’s and they could be supported via spares and also russian tech was much cheaper then than western.

Of course it would.Check out the MiG-21Bison of the Indian airforce, its pretty much the upgrade you described but using Modern Russian equvilants, well except the ram coatings i think.Though the F86 i assume would be harder to pick up on radar because of its smaller dimensions?Could be wrong.Just one thing, were are you going to house the radar and associated avionics and cooling systems?

Well firstly there is no need to produce aircraft in those numbers anymore, since the advancement in electronics, i.e radadrs, data links,flir’s etc secondly the money is not there to pay for them as they have got that expensive because of the extra tech in them, which also means it takes longer to build them.

For me the best looking aircraft are the F-4 Phantom and the MiG-29 Fulcrum.I dont know what it is but the phantom is gorgeous, i especially loved it in Royal Navy markings and the Fulcrum, the big nose on her and the sleek design of it!Both are pretty ladies!

Now it would be awesome if India can take the relationship with Israel to the next level and conduct some DACT with Israeli F 16s and Indian Mig 29s.

It would be interesting indeed to view the results.I suspect the outcome would cause a lump in alot of F-16 fan boys throats,i.e the fulcrums gave them more of a run for their money than they thought.The outcome would perhaps be similar to the USAF’s experience when they put the F-15 up against the IAF’s Su-30’s.

Just waiting for the fanclub to shoot me down now!:diablo::D

No not bold at all, if you know the facts.I have owned nikon gear and olympus so i am in a position to comment, and yes unless you are willing to fork out big on nikkor glass the olympus zuiko glass is far superior and thats only their prosumer glass.Alot of canikons people use the zuiko(olympus glass) on their cameras with the help of filters.The crop factor, no its not limiting at all, you only really notice the x2 crop factor on the tele lenses otherwise, its nots really going to make a difference as its only another x.4 more crop than canon and nikon.I know they are not the only good cameras out there, but are the most wide spread, then comes sony, olympus, sigma , panasonic, leica, samsung.

If you can get your finances sorted and are going to buy, then my advice would be, look at the lens first and find an approriate camera body.Alot of people will dismiss this but dont listen to them, as most Dslr’s that have around 10MP dont have glass that can make proper use of the full resolution, so its not that important, also you’ll out grow your camera, but you’ll always have your lens to clip on a new camera.I for instance use olympus cameras, with olympus lenses and Sigma.The lens quality is superior to anything that canon or nikon will offer without having to spend 1000’s on their pro lenses, and as a bonus the crop factor is x2, i.e if you use a 70-300mm it turns into 140-600mm on an olympus, quite usefull for airshows!

With talk of all these carrier building projects going on in other countries, no matter how ambitious, the US navy should maintain the carrier fleet at the level it is now and maybe even expand it by a unit or two, to maintain the vast supremacy they currently enjoy.If for example China gets 3-4 carriers and their associated support/escort vessels active and decide to project power, in an area were America has interests, and according to the talk here of 1 American carrier per area, well imagine if all 4 Chinnese carriers are sent to the one area, well it would be a huge embarrasment for America to have to back off while reinforcements are called??Im rambling………….