ChakosI have always wondered why the MIG-31 has not had export success. As an interceptor it is a world ahead of the Su-27 and is the one plane that can outrange and outfight the top western fighters without having to wait till they are WVR. It would be very interesting if Syria was to buy some in todays environment. May possibly be the first customer since it is currently totally incapable of stopping Isreili aircraft overflying the presidential palace in Damascus !?# 60-80 of these would really upset the strategic balance in the region a little. Iran could also use a few squadrons as an F-14 replacement. The money is certainly there and im sure the Russians would sell. If only because it would keep the Middle East as dangerous as usual and in turn keep the oil prices up therefore helping Russia rebuild (gotta love petrodollars :diablo: )
ChakosI dont think the IDF would target a British warship.. in fact any British/Australian/US warship would not be targeted at all, not even by ‘accident’. If anything did happen i think it would most likelly involve the French Navy. The French have a long standing bond with the lebanese people and if the port was attacked while a French warship was pulling civilians out then i would have no doubt that there would be crotales in the air and exocets hitting below the waterline. I was actually thinking about this particular scenario especially after reading about the USS Liberty. The French would not be in any mood to take an explanation from the IDF and it would most likelly flatten the IDF with punitive strikes as a matter of course. I simply do not rate the Isreilis as a first rate defence force by international standards, they may be the big kid on the block in the Mideast but against a large conventional European defence force they would be mince. A few squadrons of Mirage 2000’s from Southern France and a Rafale armed Charles De Gaulle battlegroup would make short work of their Navy and Air Force and punish them for any indescretion.. Dont think that there is a complete complement of Rafales yet for the De Gaulle
Comments?
ChakosHow can you go past the Kirov… the thing looks like it could sail against a USN CBG alone , have enough SAMs and CIWS’ on board to shoot anything launched against it down, big enough to survive anything short of a nuke or a 16inch shell, enough anti sub capacity to defend against the waves of subs and in the end carry enough nuke tipped 500km range cruise missiles to make sure at least one gets through.. oh.. and its so damned ugly it couldnt be anything but Russian. I WANT ONE, maybe for a few euros or $US i could arrange some dodgy russian underworld type to ‘aquire’ one for me :diablo:
ChakosI would think if you where taking chasing down pirates and actually wanted to catch them out then you wouldnt go steaming up and down the coast in anything painted grey, they would just avoid it.. even a 25mm cannon that is radar or even optically guided would make short work of several converted powerboats before that could cause any real harm. I would think that the best way to nail pirates it to obviously make urself look like a big fat target..
Think of a medium sized yacht, the typical playtoy of millionares world wide, cruising through the malacas straight. Looking very much like a floating bank vault thats been left open. Problem for the pirates is that its not manned by stockbrokers and politicians sons but in fact it is staffed with sailors and marines (or the Aussie SAS :diablo: ), The pirates approach thinking its payday and at less than 50 meters all hell breaks loose from small arms, squad machineguns and rocket launchers… as well as air support.
Why noone has done this before really leaves me wondering
ChakosYeah i understand the differences between the two, ive served in the Aussie Air Force previously, things have changed a lot now but in the eighties and early nineties our militaries where kinda similar. Since Australia has adopted a more concervative and pro American political line we have overtaken the Canadians in the area of defence, or more accuratelly.. offence
ChakosSounds very similar to Australias shopping list, minus a few big ticket items, is it just me or do the Aussies and Canucks pretty much buy the same hardware and in similar numbers?
F-18, Orion, Leopard 1, Lav-25 and variants and now 2 support ships, a dozen tactical helos and some heavy lifters as well as 4 C-17’s
ChakosYeia sas,
How many Super Vita’s does the Greek Navy intend to build? Those look like fantastic warships for Agean/Mediterranean operations and i think that it would be wise for at some stage in the future for them to comprise of the bulk of the combat capacity of the Greek Navy… oh, and the Cypriot Navy for that matter too :dev2: (but i think im dreaming there on that one)
Chakoshas it ever occured to anyone that if this guy was handed to the US on a plate, (and it was mentioned in the Aussie news that the info came from a senior al-qauda operative, most likelly one of his underlings) that it could have been a peice of housekeeping within alqaeda. There was an article about al zarqaui (i think thats how you spell it) in time magazine a few months ago saying that even bin laden had made a request for him to stop killing muslims as he was becoming a publicity nightmare for the organization (killing jews, christians and atheists is cool, but muslims are what your meant to represent basically)
He had become a loose cannon and as such had to be removed, so why not make a martyr out of him and give him the dignity in death amongst muslims that he never earned during his life.
I suspect his replacement will be some hard as nails ******* who will go back to attacking western interests in Iraq rather than ordering attacks on civilian targets. Good for Iraq, very bad for the West.
In my my perspective its a good thing, i see nothing immoral or unjust when insurgents fight the Coalition or Iraqi troops (when operating as troops, not dragging them out of their homes where they are sleeping with their loved ones)
I for one can at least see the insurgent cause gaining some self respect if that path is followed… let the most dedicated side win. Just leave the mass civilian killings out of it.
And thats to both sides….
Chakoshas it ever occured to anyone that if this guy was handed to the US on a plate, (and it was mentioned in the Aussie news that the info came from a senior al-qauda operative, most likelly one of his underlings) that it could have been a peice of housekeeping within alqaeda. There was an article about al zarqaui (i think thats how you spell it) in time magazine a few months ago saying that even bin laden had made a request for him to stop killing muslims as he was becoming a publicity nightmare for the organization (killing jews, christians and atheists is cool, but muslims are what your meant to represent basically)
He had become a loose cannon and as such had to be removed, so why not make a martyr out of him and give him the dignity in death amongst muslims that he never earned during his life.
I suspect his replacement will be some hard as nails ******* who will go back to attacking western interests in Iraq rather than ordering attacks on civilian targets. Good for Iraq, very bad for the West.
In my my perspective its a good thing, i see nothing immoral or unjust when insurgents fight the Coalition or Iraqi troops (when operating as troops, not dragging them out of their homes where they are sleeping with their loved ones)
I for one can at least see the insurgent cause gaining some self respect if that path is followed… let the most dedicated side win. Just leave the mass civilian killings out of it.
And thats to both sides….
Chakosdoes anyone know how many mil-24 cyprus operates and if it plans to get any more, also do they intend to ever operate fixed wing fighters, and if so, what are the most likelly candidates?
ChakosIts not even verbal calls for sanctions, the Euros dont want sanctions as much as the Chinese or the Russians do. What the Euros do support is a very carefully worded UN resolution telling the Iranians to behave or there may be repurcussions. They make a very good attempt at offering support to the US when really, if you read closelly it does nothing other than give a written lecture to the Iranians about beeing good international citizens. The Europeans are tied into the Iranians economically due to their reliance on Iranian gas and also due to the sales of goods to Iran. That is the reason the Europeans do not have to worry about Shahab 3’s landing in Berlin or about Iranian backed terrorists blowing up the Paris Metro. The only time they would need to worry about that is if they decide to hurt Iran militarily and economically.
Iran keeps its pitbulls on a very tight leash and Hezbollah aint about to hit any targets without the express go ahead of the clerics, who in turn will not do anything without the express go ahead of the business interests that move Iran in whichever direction they choose and use religeon as a way to strengthen resolve of the people because its more honourable to die for Allah then it is to die for someone elses petrodollars, same as the US uses religeon to controll a large segement of its society (although im not fussed wether the conservative christian right dies for God, Allah, Petrodollars or the big donut in the sky).
At the end of the day state sponsored terrorism (as opposed to individual nutters) is a method of achieving ones aims, just like special forces missions, airstrikes or cruise missile attacks. They are used by the country to achieve an aim and will only ever be used if there is a benefit to be gained. No attack would be random without an underlying reason
ChakosI know, what a bloody shame, how can you have a first world country without an air force. I think a dozen Gripens would go down fantastically
ChakosIf i was a poor third world country looking for an aircraft that would be used in roles i would be realistically facing i would go for the Super Tucano. It can be armed with decent weaponary, AAM’s, laser guided weapons, it can be fitted with a FLIR, can conduct basic interception of other prop jobs and helicopters (wich is all you will ever realistically face), can do recon, ground attack and even limited precision attack. Its also damn cheap to maintain, the trainer version is pretty much an aesthetic version of it and brazil will sell to anyone.
ChakosWhat about the F-20 Tigershark, its pretty much a pound for pound equal to the JF-17, is already designed and tested, would be cheap as chips and wouldnt need a huge upgrade for operators of the F-5
ChakosSOC, attitutes like that make me believe one day that the rest of the world will have about enough of the US and gang up on them simply because they are too dangerous to be allowed to keep going the way they are.
I can almost see it
US kicked out of the UN and then the UN passes a resolution calling for the destruction of all U.S. nuclear weapons, bans on production of nuclear energy, inspectors from a neutral 3rd nation i.e. Botswana, and the handing over of the entire NEOCON administration to the international courts.
Oh. And the compensation to the families of every man woman and child killed due to the US or allies of the US for whatever reason over the last 50 years.
:dev2:
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