Making a decision to purchase a fighter to protect soverign territory is hardly “mustering an army”. Every nation no matter how small needs a way to protect itself. just because there is no nation in possesion of EF2000’s or Su-35’s in that region that could threaten Brazil currently, does that mean Brazil shouldn’t invest in an aircraft that would give it’s pilots an edge in combat?

Perhaps I have misunderstood but it sounds like you are suggesting Brazil shouldn’t keep ahead of its neighbours because there is no immediate threat.

Could they do better things with the money, yes no doubt they could, then again could every nation do better things with their defence budgets? Couldn’t Britain, India, the US, France, Russia, China, Taiwan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia etc etc etc all make improvements in way way or another to support their people instead of “wasting” billions on arms purchases?

If Brazil possesses an Air Force that would dominate its neighbours in combat by purchasing the Rafale then that in itself would justify the purchase. To maintain peace, a nation MUST be seen as being capable of defeating an enemy. If that means spending money that could be better spent elsewhere then so be it.

Besides, I think Brazils submarine program costs a lot more than the Rafale purchase

Now that’s more like it, a bit more realistic. But there’s always room for improvement:

1. I suspect French Air Force C-160s are pretty knackered at this stage, so perhaps a couple of CASA CN-235s instead, or if money is really tight, C-212s or even Harbin Y-12s for light transport?

2. Mi-8s rather than Hueys? Cheaper? Certainly bigger.

3. Do you need jets at all? A lot of complexity – training, maintenance, logistics. Would the Super Tucanos and Cobras not be able to provide the gunship/CAS capability on their own?

Yeah, tried to go for realism based on the average nation on this planet that is concerned with COIN operations.

Mi-8s rather than Hueys, hmmm maybe. they as you say are bigger and I’d imagine can carry a bigger external weapons payload.

C-160 situation, yeah I would agree that they probably would be fast approaching the end of their lives, CN-235 never really appealed to me. Perhaps a launch customer for 2 An-70s or maybe a pair of An-74 ex-Russian Air Force

Demand for jets would be a need for rapid response, but love the A-29B attack version of the Super Tucano so maybe yeah the A-29B would work.

Oh, forgot intel’ and surv’ assets…4 x OV-10 Bronco ex-Phillipine/Venezuelan Air Force, only two operational as other two used for spare parts

C-the F-35 design was a simpler/less expensive design rather than max signature reduction without regard to expense.[/QUOTE]

Yes, people forget the F-35 was (still is?!?!?) the new F-16, an affordable (that was the idea anyway : /) multi-role aircraft that would take the place of the Falcon on the fighter market.

I love the T-50 design, but there is something about the build quality that just keeps nagging at me. I hope for the production aircraft it will improve, if so Russia and hopefully India and some others will possess a formiddable aircraft by the looks of things

other than because they are Russian explain why.

I’m British, so b4 yu go on about “us Russians” don’t. Unless you have a good reason…which you may or may not have…there is no reason why India shouldn’t buy Russian

Since when does the USAF fly Super Hornets? The idea behind both teams is to promote their services in the eye of the public. So the F/A-18E certainly would not be flown by the Thunderbirds.
The F-35 would probably be the option that both would go for, if not the Air Force while the F/A-18E/F would be a logical choice for the Navy’s Blue Angels.
Anyway, can’t see them changing their aircraft for a while given the need for all available combat aircraft and budget demands elsewhere in the forces

Quick question about Lipetsk and the first batches of various new aircraft. Russia has started to receive new models or variants of aircraft recently such as the Ka-50/52, Su-34, Mi-28N and Su-25SM. Most of these aircraft are stationed at Lipetsk or other test and combat evaluation centres Does this mean that these aircraft are not ready to serve in actual combat? For example, if another conflict in Ossetia were to ignite would these aircraft see combat?
During the recent incident between Georgia and Russia, as far as I am aware only the Su-34 saw some service, no Ka-52 or Mi-28N ever saw combat during the fighting. Why weren’t they deployed?

this will probably be a dull point but why during this scenario were all of the L.C.S.’s armed with the same module? would it not be more realistic to mix these modules within the fleet so that they don’t have to run away tp re-equip in the event of a change of threat?

B.T.W. I have no clue about these modules, could you explain how they work