inkWhat I said was in reply to what the Serb members of this forum said…that they needed the planes for SPECIFICALLY that purpose.
Go on Kapedani, find me a quote that shows somebody saying that Serbia should go to war with its neighbours.
NB (for everyone not as prejudiced as Kapedani): The Serbian members of this forum are not members of any collective group and behave like individuals with their own (frequently differing) opinions.
inkHere are some great shots of Serbian Air Force fighters and helicopters
A couple of those are Yugoslav Airforce pics… And anyway, there is no need for so many new Serbian AF threads. Hopefully the mods will see fit to merge them all into one thread.
inkA bit more information from: http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/466638/russias_top_space_company_targets_moon/index.html
…During the second stage of the moon program, Energiya plans to fly six manned missions to the moon estimated to cost around $2 billion, Sevastyanov said.
Finally, Energiya hopes to set up a permanent moon base complete with a nuclear power plant and equipment to start tapping helium-3 as an energy source to satisfy the energy demands back on Earth around 2020.
Scientists believe that the moon’s supply of helium-3 could be used in futuristic fusion reactors on Earth that would generate electricity without producing nuclear waste.
Sevastyanov said that a moon exploration program envisaging the delivery of 10 tons of helium to Earth would cost about $40 billion…
And some more in-depth info from: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/helium3_000630.html
“Helium 3 fusion energy may be thekey to future space exploration and settlement,” said Gerald Kulcinski,Director of the Fusion Technology Institute (FTI) at the University ofWisconsin at Madison. Scientists estimate there are about1 million tons of helium 3 on the moon, enough to power the world for thousandsof years. The equivalent of a single space shuttle load or roughly 25 tonscould supply the entire United States’ energy needs for a year, accordingto Apollo17 astronaut and FTI researcher Harrison Schmitt.
Indeed for now, the economics of extractingand transporting helium 3 from the moon are also problematic. Even if scientistssolved the physics of helium 3 fusion, “it would be economically unfeasible,”asserted Jim Benson, chairman of SpaceDev in Poway, California, which strivesto be one of the first commercial space-exploration companies. “UnlessI’m mistaken, you’d have to strip-mine large surfaces of the moon.”
While it’s true that to produce roughly70 tons of helium 3, for example, a million tons of lunar soil would needto be heated to 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit (800 degrees Celsius) to liberatethe gas, proponents say lunar strip mining is not the goal. “There’s enoughin the Mare Tranquillitatis alone to last for several hundred years,” Schmittsaid. The moon would be a stepping stone to other helium 3-rich sources,such as the atmospheres of Saturn and Uranus.
inkYou cannot be far from the truth… Russian spare parts are quite rare , and unless Russia Owe your country money , you won’t get a steady supply of parts.
Is it just me or is everybody stuck in some sort of time-warp where they can only see Russia as it was in 1998?
inkMore news from Central Asia:
From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4946110.stm
China, Russia and four Central Asian countries will hold joint anti-terrorism exercises in Russia next year, they have announced.
The six nations agreed the moves at a defence ministers’ meeting in Beijing.The Shanghai Co-operation Organization (SCO) comprises Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as China and Russia.
The grouping has been growing closer as the nations say they want to co-operate over internal or external threats.
“The threat of SCO borders being crossed by armed groups is absolutely real,” Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
He said the armed forces of member states “should, if needed, help neighbouring states block and possibly destroy large armed groups”.
Terrorism, religious extremism and separatism were identified as the threats central to Wednesday’s meeting, by a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman.Several of the countries say they face a threat from Islamic militants in particular.
The group was founded in 2001, and all the countries except Uzbekistan held their first joint military exercises in 2003.
inkMOSCOW, April 27 (RIA Novosti) – Spacecraft manufacturer Energiya said Thursday that its new digitally-controlled Soyuz TMA vehicles will be used to extract lunar reserves of helium-3
until a reusable shuttle comes online.
“Before the new Clipper space shuttle is there to take over, we will have to master new digital control systems that we are now installing on Soyuz [craft] instead of analogue parts,” Energiya Chief Executive Nikolai Sevastyanov said.
He said only Russian-made systems will be used to upgrade the Soyuz TMA, and that the digital version will be cheaper, lighter and more spacious.
The three-seater Soyuz TMA capsule was the sole vehicle to carry crews to the International Space Station after U.S. shuttle flights were suspended over the Columbia disaster in February 2003, to resume only two-and-a-half years later.
Russia’s next-generation reusable Clipper shuttle, which seats six, is expected to replace the veteran Soyuz by 2015.
I keep hearing bits and pieces about this Helium-3 and how it could prove massively important for future energy production and how the moon is stuffed with it… However, I am no scientist and so I don’t know what to make of it. Are the Russians really going to be mining on the moon? Is this viable? Why aren’t the US doing it? Whats going on?
inkThanks for that much more comprehensive info Harry, much appreciated.
inkSo I guess, for now, it’s a “watch this space”.
I completely agree actually.
Still, its interesting that this region has so much attention from the world’s powers and that they’re all in such close proximity militarily (lets not forget that China isn’t more than a stone’s throw away either and that they keep announcing cooperation with Russia regarding the region’s security issues).
inkBut looking at how most of you talk here…I don’t think this is what you’r thinking about.
Fortunately this is exactly what I was thinking:
First get rid of the junk thats around now…and invest the money saved on runing junk to keep a small force of trainers…to keep flying up…and for a period of 10 years or so keep saving…so that 10 years from now you can buy a small force of some 24 multi-role fighters or so from western sources to facilitate integrating into NATO…whenever that day comes.
Of course you suggest that we stop buying Russian which I don’t completely agree with. Or rather, I don’t agree with completely buying western because a, we may never get into either the EU or NATO (although frankly NATO looks more likely), b, Russia today aren’t Russia from 1998 and the Russia of tomorrow (possibly with close links to India and China) may be even better off and keeping the Russians sweet could pay dividends even if we do get into the EU and doubly so if we don’t, and finally, c, Russian kit tends to be better value for money (and can be integratable into western force structures if the client so desires). Some of those points overlap but I’m tired – so sue me.
inkKapedani,
I know that asking this question may well be a mistake on my part but I’m too curious not to:
If you were in charge of the Serbian AF what would you do?
inkInk,
Don’t believe everything you read in the papers. It was four Tu-95MS that went up north to Alaska and Canadian airspace. Eight USAF F-15s intercepted them and the Canadians took over with their CF-18s.
Don’t worry TJ, I didn’t really believe it.
inkVaistinu vaskrse! 🙂
inkMOSCOW, April 22 (RIA Novosti) – Russian military planes flew undetected through the U.S. zone of the Arctic Ocean to Canada during recent military exercises, a senior Air Force commander said Saturday.
The commander of the country’s long-range strategic bombers, Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov, said the U.S. Air Force is now investigating why its military was unable to detect the Russian bombers.
“They were unable to detect the planes either with radars or visually, (is that because it was cloudy?)” he said.
Khorov said that during the military exercises in April, Tu-160 Blackjack bombers and Tu-95 Bears had successfully carried out four missile launches. Bombing exercises were held using Tu-22 Blinders.
By the end of the year, two more Tu-160s will be commissioned for the long-range strategic bomber fleet, Khorov said.
Both new planes will incorporate numerous upgrades from the initial Soviet models, the commander said. The bombers will be able to launch both cruise missiles and aviation bombs, and communicate via satellite.
Is it me or is the cold war back on? Can’t wait for pics of western fighters greeting Bears and Blackjacks in the north Atlantic. 😀
This picture went with the article:
inkAnd no the money is NOT NATO money…it is directly from Turkey…part of Turkish MoD expenditures…appliable only to Turkey. Nothing to do with NATO…so LISTEN to what we’r saying before either coming up with your own theories or better yet jumping in here telling us what fools we are. You don’t even bother to read what we’r saying.
Just because you write in CAPITALS doesn’t make it true. :diablo: 😀 😉 :p
inkInk,shame on you.You are making us sound like victims
Err… Yea… Sorry about that. 😉
Anyway that wasn’t my intention at all – just trying to illustrate that in the context of the recent history of Serbia its recent acheivments are pretty healthy.
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