inkNews:
MOSCOW, April 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russia and Ukraine have agreed to resume production of the An-124 Ruslan (Condor) heavy-lift transport aircraft in 2008, Russia’s prime-minister said on Monday.
Russia and Ukraine had originally agreed in principle to resume the plane’s production on February 12, 2008 during talks in the Russian capital between the two countries’ presidents and a final decision followed on Monday, Viktor Zubkov said.
“A concrete decision has been taken to resume the joint production of the An-124 Ruslan plane, which, as we know, is in great demand,” he said, after a meeting of the economic co-operation committee of the Russia-Ukrainian intergovernmental commission.
The An-124 was designed by the Antonov Design Bureau in 1982 and was the world’s largest transport plane until production of the Airbus A380 began earlier this decade. It was produced in Kiev and Ulyanovsk until 1995. It can carry 150 tons of cargo for around 3,000 kilometers.
inkSecond link doesn’t work 🙁
inkEd, again, I see your point, of course I do – its a good one 🙂
However, though the Russians are treading on thin ice (legally speaking) it is the sort of thing the big powers tend to do – not that I’m condoning it. For example, the US action against Iraq wasn’t supported by the UN and yet nobody got their knickers in a twist when US forces destroyed Iraqi military equipment of any kind. Sure people were upset about the civilians, but hardly any serious commentator made an issue of the destruction of military equipment.
Also, the Russians do have ‘peace-keepers’ stationed in Abkhazia and their presence (this incident and others aside) certainly does help to keep the peace – i.e. it stops Georgian forces attempting an outright invasion. Though this situation isn’t sanctioned by the UN, and I agree it should be*, the Russians still have a case for ‘protecting’ their troops. Now, this incident can hardly be called protection in the traditional sense (the drone was unarmed after all) but it certainly stops intelligence being gathered about Russian troop positions, something that is akin to protection in a volatile environment.
Ok, lets try it the other way round. You’re the commander of Russian air-power in the area and the Georgians are sending drones over the territory where your country’s troops are stationed, clearly with a mind to gathering intelligence about them. You have, it seems to me, three options; 1, you could do nothing – 2, you could try to force the drone out of your airspace (although I don’t really see how) – and, 3, you could shoot it down and send a message, i.e. “don’t mess with us, we’re not going to be pushed around”.
Maybe option 1 is ok, but surely you can see how tempting option 3 is? Especially considering no lives have to be taken.
To me, it seems like the Georgians sent this thing into Abkhazian airspace hoping for a win-win situation. Either it collects some valuable data about enemy forces or it gets shot down and they can score a few points on the international stage.
* Or at least the Russians should try to get UN approval for the presence of their peace-keepers.
inkIt is a lot more complex than your example, though, Ink, since operations over Kosovo are largely UN backed. In contrast, the Abkhazia and S. Ossetia are a far more complex situation; Russian military involvement there is not UN sanctioned, so this is very much an issue. In particular, the shooting down of an unarmed recon drone over the internationally recognised territory of that state is pretty difficult to justify. I think you would have a much better argument if it had been a Georgian Su-25 or similar on an armed mission…
Ed, you have a point, of course. Still, whether UN sanctioned or not, Abkhazia is still quite clearly not simply Georgian territory (otherwise Su-25s would also be able to fly there without it being an issue). The decision to send unmanned drones over Abkhazia is still a case of ‘baiting’ by the Georgians, in my opinion. To me, the Russian reaction is perfectly justified.
Buddha, no, I’m afraid I don’t have any details at hand. I remember talk of such incidents at the time but any relevant articles etc are saved on another computer (unfortunately in a different country at the moment). Perhaps others on this forum have further info. Also, there may be something in the archive here… Worth a look anyway.
inkShows just how vulnerable drones are to fighter jets too (not a drone fan)
I am a drone fan however. So, yes, it does show how vulnerable drones are to fighter jets – big deal. Allied Force showed how vulnerable they are to helicopters with machineguns and AAA. Of course they’re vulnerable. But whats the alternative – esp. for countries like Georgia who can’t afford satellite surveillance?
inkI don’t understand why this is such a big deal – if NATO planes tasked with providing air-cover for KFOR dropped a Serbian UAV that had ‘strayed’ over Kosovo it would only make the news because Serbia doesn’t actually have any UAVs :diablo:
Am I allowed to say that or have I crossed the line?
Or is it interesting because the video is cool (which it is)?
inkNews:
MOSCOW, April 23 (RIA Novosti) — The nuclear powered missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy of Russia’s Northern Fleet has completed a missile firing exercise in the Barents Sea, a Navy spokesman said on Wednesday.
“The live fire exercise was carried out as part of a tactical drill at a test site in the Barents Sea,” Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said.
He said, in particular, the battle-cruiser had successfully engaged a mock target launched from the missile ship Rassvet.
The cruiser also repulsed a mock air attack with an onboard antiaircraft complex.
Dygalo said Pyotr Velikiy’s operations in the Barents Sea were ensured by Northern Fleet warships and support vessels.
inkNews that would have been practically unthinkable eight or nine years ago.
MOSCOW, April 21 (RIA Novosti) – More than 110 military aircraft from eight CIS states will take part in a large-scale command-and-staff exercise on April 22 led by the Joint Air Defense Force, a senior Russian military official said Monday.
“Over 20 scenarios will be rehearsed, designed at strengthening the air space of CIS countries – Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan,” said Lt.Gen. Vadim Volkovitsky, deputy commander of the Russian Air Force.
He said command of the drill will be provided by Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin, Russian Air Force chief, from the Central Command and Control Post.
More than 10 missile, air defense, anti-aircraft, and electronic warfare units will rehearse missions to protect the air space around Moscow and the Central Federal District.
MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker fighters will practice interception missions.
inksferrin,
The fact is you already know the theory: emitters or generators of elctro-magnetic fields placed around the airframe ionize the air that enters the laminate air-flow layer by altering its charge. The details are sketchy – as you would expect.
inkConspicuous absence of FENCERs?
inkThese are just attempts to usurp the F-35 pitch for Brazil’s F-X tender.
Spot on!
inkYou’d think that kind of testing would be easier to conduct in the air…
inkNews:
MOSCOW, April 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has prepared arms contracts worth $3 billion for outgoing president Vladimir Putin’s visit to Libya this week, a business daily said on Tuesday citing defense and aircraft industry officials.
The Kremlin said on Monday Putin would visit the oil and gas-rich north African state on April 16-17 at the invitation of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, giving no details of the agenda.
Vedomosti said citing a Defense Ministry official that Russia wants to sell 12 of the latest Su-35 Flanker multi-role fighter and Tor-M2E short-range missile systems, and to offer spare parts and maintenance services for Soviet-era military hardware.
An aircraft industry source quoted by the daily confirmed the deal has almost been prepared, but added the majority of contracts could only be initialed in Libya as the two countries have failed to reach an agreement on the African state’s Soviet-era debt, which Russia earlier put at about $3.5 billion.
Tripoli said in the 1990s that Russia also had an outstanding debt to Libya.
But a Russian government official told Vedomosti the debt dispute could be resolved and the arms contracts signed during Putin’s visit as Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and Rosoboronexport chief Anatoly Isaikin will both accompany the outgoing leader.
Russia’s state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, denied comment on the planned arms deals, the paper said adding Libya’s embassy in Moscow had also made no comment.
In the arms market, Russia has encountered tough competition with Western nations since the UN lifted sanctions against Libya in 2003, after Qaddafi announced he would halt the country’s nuclear weapons program and later accepted responsibility for the 1998 terrorist bombing over Lockerbie in Scotland, agreeing to pay compensation to the victims’ families.
France is anxious to sell Tripoli 18 Rafale fighter aircraft worth 2.5 billion euros (about $4 billion).
The visit to Libya could be Putin’s last foreign trip as president after he steps down in May to give way to his protege, Dmitry Medvedev. Putin will stay on as premier.
inkOk, so now I remember reading somewhere on here that the Russians are toying with the development of dual-sensor missiles, however, my skill at manipulating the search function on this forum remains under-developed. Does anyone remember where that comment might have come up? I’d be mighty interested in reading it again and, in any case, it seems to be relevant to this thread.
inkDon’t mean to be picky but this could really be merged into the RuAF news thread.
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