OMG,thats real sad.

Not Flankerman?!
🙂

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2990992&C=asiapac

A Foreign Office spokesman told AFP that they were held for “jumping a queue in the toilets and going through a fence they shouldn’t have gone through.”

Russian food not going down too well?:D

A friend who had a chitchat with a senior guy has forwarded this to me.I reproduce it with his permission.

We have been doing pretty well at the exercises.The boys had a look at the Typhoon.Its a very good aircraft.Particularly the acceleration appears to be impressive.But we also like the sukhoi.Its an air dominance fighter..and that name isnt without significance.The thing is when two well trained forces go against each other,it becomes a battle of attrition.AwACs has changed the way we fight.If you dont have an awacs and your opponent has,you better deal with it early on,otherwise you are in trouble.All in all,I think it would be fair to say that whether you have the M29 or the Mirage or the F-16,a good pilot will always know his strength and use it to exploit the opponent’s weakness.

3. About MiG-21, some more “recent” batches could carry R-60 missiles. Does the FCS allow firing those missiles without previous radar lock? Eg. to slave the missile seeker to the HUD piper, much like in Su-25, it also uses Aphids for self-defense and has no radar or any kind of aerial sensor.

3. Probably, it doesn’t look hard to implement HUD seeker slaving, most of radarless Soviet aircraft, and platforms without any kind of aerial sensors can use short-range IR homers for selfdefense. I’d just like this to be confirmed, looks to me like the RP-21 is just giving out your position in the air, since it’s detection ranges are well inside visual range in clear conditions. It would be better to use your own set of eyes and some info from the GCI to track the target down and home the R-60’s on it, then to scan the airspace with the RP-21. Of course, in clear-sky conditions.

The FCS probably can use the seeker to lock on without using the radar.But the distance then will depend on the R-60 seeker.And I think using the radar will provide a little more distance to launch the R-60,than just using the seeker even in clear conditions.Plus the FoV of the RP-21 is more than the R-60 seeker(±20 deg),so thats another advantage of using the radar.

FWIW:

IAF hikes combat jet purchase figure to 200
24 Aug, 2007, 1710 hrs IST, IANS

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) could purchase upwards of 200 aircraft to ramp up its ageing and depleting fleet of fighters, adding around 80 more to the figure of 126 it had planned earlier.

“The number could go up by 70-80 if necessary,” Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar here.

Hitherto, a figure of 126 multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA) had been mentioned for the IAF order but this number was widely expected to rise due to the prolonged delay in acquiring the new planes.

To add to the IAF’s woes, there have been huge time and cost overruns in developing the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA), prototypes of which have been flying since 2000 but which is expected to be inducted into service only by 2012.

The cost of 126 aircraft had been estimated at $10 billion, making it India’s biggest ever defence deal. The additional aircraft would cost $6 billion, raising the size of the deal to $16 billion.

Asked when the global tender for the MRCAs would be issued, Raju cryptically replied, “Soon”.

India’s Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) had cleared the tender June 29, and this was expected to have gone out within a month to the manufacturers of the six aircraft that are in the fray. Officials are tight-lipped on the reasons for the delay but indicate this could be because of some top-level changes in the defence ministry.

Vijay Singh is the new defence secretary in place of Shekhar Dutt, who has retired. N.K. Narang has come in as secretary (Defence Accounts) replacing V.K. Mishra, who has retired. No replacement has been named for Sheelbhadra Banerjee, the director general (Acquisitions) who has moved to another assignment.

All three officials are members of the DAC and would need time to study the voluminous IAF tender to understand its complexities.

While the DAC has cleared a tender for 126 aircraft, the additional jets are likely to be purchased as a “follow-on” order as the IAF has done in the case of 80 Mi-17 medium lift helicopters it is purchasing from Russia.

The IAF desperately needs new aircraft to replace its ageing fleet of Soviet-era MiG-21 fighters that make up 21 squadrons of its 30-squadron fleet of combat aircraft. The IAF has a sanctioned strength of 45 fighter squadrons but the highest it has ever been able to achieve is 39-and-a-half squadrons.

The tender, or Request For Proposal (RFP) would now be sent out to the manufacturers of six aircraft: the US F-16 and F-18 Super Hornet, the Swedish Gripen, the French Rafale, the Russian MiG-35 and the European consortium’s Eurofighter.

Once the RFP is issued, the manufacturers will have six months to respond, following which a professional team would conduct a technical evaluation of the proposals received to check for compliance with the IAF’s operational requirements and other RFP conditions.

Extensive field trials would then be carried out to evaluate the performance of the different aircraft. Finally, the commercial proposal of the vendors short-listed after technical and field evaluations would be examined and compared.

The defence ministry’s Contract Negotiation Committee (CNC) would then hold discussions with the vendors before identifying the manufacturer who would be awarded the IAF order.

The CNC would submit its report to the defence minister, who would forward it to the finance minister. After the file returns to the defence ministry, it would go for final approval to the cabinet committee on security (CCS). This process would take some two-and-a-half years.

After the contract is signed with the chosen manufacturer, it would take another two-and-a-half year before the first aircraft start arriving.

Link

ROFL! First thing that popped into my head when I read that was “you goddam# communist heathen you had best sound of that you love the Virgin Mary or I’m gonna stomp your guts out!!” As for who believes in what I spent two solid years doing nothing but missionary work. How ’bout yourself? My ridicule was at the whole sorry exhibition because exhibition it was. Hey I know, maybe I should have to Pope over to give my HD flatscreen a blessing. ROFL!!

I must say that I dont find anything wrong with the Russians getting their equipment blessed by a priest.Infact its a refreshing change from the communist practices.Here in India its the standard procedure to do a little religious ceremony(puja) during commisioning of every tank,ship and aircraft.Its the same as having chaplains in the military.:)

Sorry, but I don’t see these flights as being positive for either side. Russia is just wasting valuble resources that could be better spent elsewhere.

They now have the resources to spend thats why they are doing it.Before now the flights were stopped because they hadnt.

Further, other countries besides the US take it as provative.

So what can Russia do about that?Its not as if they violated anybody’s airspace.What do you want the Russian’s should keep their head down always and say sorry and please..:D

Really, if the Russia wants more respect in the world. It should continue working on Reforms and the Russian Economy.

Here you are assuming that Russia is doing that just to gain respect..although if it were,seeing the way people are reacting,they might just be successful..;)

During which time she could work on reviving her Aerospace and Defense Industry.

She is working full time on reviving her aerospace and defence industry.See MAKS 07 and thats got nothing related to these flights.

All in open of course. Otherwise, her neighbor are just going to believe Russia is going back to her cold war days……:eek:

Well..that they might think,I dont see Russia needs to conform to what other countries think.If the Russians have the balls,they can do whatever is in Russia’s interest and whatever they feel is right.

Frankly,comparing Russia and SK is a joke….