another thought…

we can all agree that Iran has a bit of a knack at reverse engineering equipment as it sees fit. It has produced parts for the F-4, F-5 and F-14 as well as reverse engineering an entire F-5. Whats stopping them from reverse engineering and mass producing an F-14, possibly with russian engines and radar. Its the most likelly option as they would be able to hide the program more effectivelly as there would be no trace of importing foreign aircraft, and as you will never see the entire F-14 fleet in the one place at the one time then it is extremelly hard to verify if they have 10, 20 or 200. Especially if they make an effort to only fly the originals regularly, using them to train up the pilots and keep them current while they build up a larger force of home made tomcats.

i wouldnt put it past them, lot more likely and doable than a Mig-31

All i want is sharks with “lasers” on their heads… :dev2:

(Dr Evil from the Spy who shagged me for those of you with no access to television) :p

As a European (Although i was born and live in Australia) im bloody proud of the fact that the EU is producing its own BVM missile. Its finally begining show some independance from the US in its defence dealings. The US has managed to get itself in the position where it has the final say as to which countries get what weapons and uses diplomatic arm twisting to force other countries to bow to its decisions.

Just because a country does not have a foreign policy that does not go hand in hand with that of the US does not mean it is not allowed to purchase whatever weapons it wants (within reason, im not saying that the Russians should go out and sell SS-18’s to anyone who passes a credit check).

Personally i think this will give other countries an opportunity to purchase a complete air force package from the EU and not have to worry about losing most of the armament options because US congress votes against it.

Personally i would like to see the Meteor exported widelly as a counter to the AMRAAM and to the range of Russian BVM’s. (Chinese SU-30MKK’s armed with AA-11’s and Meteors, a european AESA radar and powered by the AL-41F *drools*)

just my 2 cents worth…

Has it occured to anyone that this is all a ruse on behalf of the Iranians. They are trying to make the world think that they are in the process of creating nuclear weapons when in fact i believe that Iran is already a nuclear power.

When the Soviet Union collapsed there where many radical poor muslim countries in the Caspian region that where left with no money, no future prospects and a rather large nuclear arsenal.

We so far have only their word that the nukes where all returned to Russia or destroyed yet many of these countries are receiving a good deal of foreign aid ( as well as political influence) from Iran.

In the post cold war world where there where literally thousands of nuclear weapons that once belonged to the USSR sitting outside its borders whats to say that 5, 10 or even 100 didnt make the trip across the Iranian border in the back of some unmarked truck.

I believe that the only reason the Iranians are doing this is to establish the belief across the world that they have developed their own nuclear arms, as it is useless having nukes unless people know you do (they are a weapon of terror… pure and simple) and it would not do to simply announce that you got them through underhanded means.

Also, Iran has an alliance with both Russia and China in the Shanghai Pact. And i once heard a saying that alliances are useless in peace, they are dessigned by nature for war.

Thanks

Just a thought. Its claimed that Iran bought 29 Tor systems for $750 million.
Now, doing the maths, that would mean that a Tor launcher would cost $25 million dollars. Thats pretty much the cost of a platoon of M1A2 SEP’s.

A Tor battery is 4 launchers and a command/radar track, with a couple of ammo vehicles thrown in for good measure.. That would seem $25 million dollars worth to me.

That works out at around 120 launchers… Enough to make it a very bad day for any american or isreili attack.

I think when we hear the term ‘Tor M1 System, we assume it to be a single vehicle… not the battery.

If all i was getting for 750 mil was 29 individual russian short range SAM’s id be buying myself 300 T-90’s for the same amount of money.

just a thought…