have a look at this , i don’t know if this has been posted before , but you can see a Su-34 taking a high resolution shot of the su-35 at 20 km then later at 40 km with no visible loss in resolution.

20 and 40 km? Funny.

From what I have read, there are claims from Israeli sources that the US initially gave a green light for selling a squadron of the Israeli aircraft with Israeli mods to Croatia (turning a blind eye of sorts), but when Israel afterwards started offering the same aircraft to other countries as well (Romania, Bulgaria, Columbia are mentioned, 6 squadrons in total), the US changed their stance as this would jeopardize their F-16V sales (of which Croatia couldn’t afford a squadron anyway).

It was a cheap way for Croatia to get modernized F-16’s, but then they would depend on Israeli spares and weapons and it’s questionable in which condition these airplanes really are (i.e. any potential savings might be relatively quickly negated over the planned 20 years of use).

End of the road for the IS bunch in Idlib finally (I guess they are from the IS pocket south of the Hama-Aleppo road who the regime gave a corridor to Idlib a second time already). They look so ragtag, one almost feels sorry for them.

https://mideast.liveuamap.com/en/2018/13-february-at-dahar-alghozat-fsa-free-syrian-army-arrested

https://mideast.liveuamap.com/en/2018/13-february-340-isis-members-including-80-woman-and-childrens

Wonder if some of them can rejoin the HTS or perhaps the Turkish brand of FSA is still hiring? After a few strict reprogramming courses, of course. 🙂

They should have used a Su-24 or Su-34 instead then, to avoid getting shot down.

They haven’t had expected a MANPADS threat apparently as they seem to be flying rather casually over the enemy-held territory. They really should speed up that SM3 upgrade.

I wonder what the mission was; I’d expect a CAS mission with those rocket pods, but the crash site is not really on the frontlines so perhaps it was an interdiction mission on the cheap.

The MiG-29M2 did not retain the wing fold mechanism from the MiG-29K/KUB. Neither did the MiG-35.

His question was whether they had kept the same 2-part wing instead of tooling a new one-part one, not the wing fold mechanism. Some photos do seem to indicate a split and some strengthening parts which hold the 2 parts together.

http://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/s…5144.bild.html

With Google Translator you can learn about that in English. For example:
Trad: “Yes, it is very clear to our analysts that Russia’s daily bombardments on rebels and (the radical Islamist militia, d.Red.) Use HTS ISIS.” Even if the Kremlin’s attacks are not directly coordinated with ISIS, be clear: “The Russian air strikes act as de facto air support.”

There seems to be an IS pocket south-east from the Idlib province which is apparently fighting against HTS. Apparently, these are the IS units evacuated as part of a deal with the government forces from one of the ex-IS held pockets in the area.

https://syria.liveuamap.com

FalconDude: Don’t be naieve.. This has never been bout Kurdish people and their strive for independence.. It was all about installing Barzani, a multibillion dollar bank tycoon to power to control a 2-mil-barrel-daily worth of Iraqi oil from Kirkuk and Hassan fields and then pass it over for rock bottom prices, mostly to Israel.. no one has ever cared about Kurds in this chess game, the less Barzani himself, for him they are just tools to get to the big money..
Iraqi PM has made a short process there and retaken Kirkuk in one swift blow, a move which has caught Netanyahu rather unprepared.. Peshmerga forces were left alone in this.. and Barzani? He refused to candidate in the next elections.. suddenly, without Iraqi oil, the noble “Kurdish fight for independence” doesn’t look that much appealing to him, anymore..

He’s a very patient man then, since he must have planned this even before 1979 when he replaced his father as a head of the KDP. Of course, he must have known that the US will intervene in Iraq twice to form KRG and install him in power finally and that ISIS will give him a chance to add Kirkuk to the KRG so he can finally get some of that oil money. Sneaky Barzani!

Speaking of the Kuznetsov refit, an article in the Air International mentions that the modernization of Kuznetsov (40-50 mil rubles, which would have apparently included the replacement of the Shipwreck missiles) was canceled just last month and a standard refit was chosen (25 mil rubles).

I must have missed such a news piece last month or was this perhaps already published way before?