Iran and J-10? I would question the authenticity of this report first before comparing different aircrafts and so on.

Over the past decade or so we have hard about quite a few imminent sales to Iran including J-8IIM. Just a few weeks back there was a report of flanker sale and (unless im mistaken) also the talk of Mig-31s for them. Under present circumstances, however, i dont think China would be in a rush to sell their newest secret fighter to Iran. No one can say with any authority whether or not US and/or Israel will stirke Iran at some timepoint in near future. While China along Russia would provide all sorts of diplomatic support to Iran against US, selling them offensive weapons is a totally different ball game at least for China. Considering Russian incrasing aggressive stance towards west, it perhaps would have carried more weight if the news was about some russian flanker/fulcrum sale to Iran. OTOH China enjoys quite cordial relations with Israel too (in spite of phalcon saga) and i dont think they would want to put that they would want to jeoperdise that…at least not yet.

Just like Gorshkov price issue. Making statements without substance. Russians arent scared. they have 60% positive view of China.
http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=256
offcourse they will make laws that can be applied for various purposes. (read georgia).

Star49, I came across that poll earlier, and what surprised me was not the actual 60% figure but the fact that in spite of increaing chinese influence round the globe, the figure has stayed the same since when compared with 2005.

Well. Definitely all this story is very strange and unclear. If we assume that THIS was really a nuclear reactor for military purpose, a question arises – why Syria will build such a reactor vulnerable to attack – an example with Iraqi Ozirak in 1981 exists. Why anyhow the reactor should be build to be visible by spy satellites for example? (The conclusion must be – build your military purpose reactors deep and hide them ).

Of course this may be a tricky move from Syrians – to make Israel and USA think that the reactor has been destroyed, but at fact it may be only a dummy

If they had any ‘credible’ evidence that could link ‘whatever they bombed’ in Syria with nuclear material, US/Israel by now would have moved sky and earth to link it with Iran and how dangerous Iranian nuclear threat is.:)

Nick/Ankush…wrt the number of MMRCA, i was making the very same point as yous, i.e. it doesn’t make sense to aquire it in lower numbers:)

After all irans neighbours have the following : F-15’s, EF’s, F-16 blk 52/60, tornados and mirages-2k9.

As Hasan Rowhani put it to the effect, in spite of very high oil price iranian policies have not been good enough to get its economy out of doldrums. Combine that with national pride/ego, Iran does not have any SU-30s. However, with American threat loomin and with Putin taking an ever increasing Anti US stance, anything could happen. But then again, the question is if Putin would risk it. I mean, wielding Veto power in UN in support of UN is one thing and giving them SU-30/35 which would UNDOUBTEDLY be destroyed in any American attack due to sheer American power risks losing the reputation of these russian eagles of skies.:) I suspect Russia might be more willing to sell them more sophisticated earlier versions of S-300s though.

It wont be that much[2-4 times].For eg.take the example of say M2K.India acquired the M2K at 30 million USD a piece[current valuation at 45 m USD].And the upgrade package announced is worth about 5 million USD/plane iirc.

Having said that,neither do I understand what they actually mean by “life cycle costs”
It should include the routine maintenance costs.Nowadays due to excellent servicability and reliability [BITE,health usage monitoring systems]of the equipments the maint. costs are not that much.Whether they also include one midlife upgrade i cant say.Anyway,even if it is,I cant see it being 2-4 times.

By life cycle cost, I ‘personally’ meant everything including upgrades, maintenance, flying etc. As you have pointed out the figure of 2-4 times might be too high for newer fighters. Whereas this may have been the figure a few years ago, new figures should take into account the excruciatingly high unit prices for modern fighters as well as better techniques (ont forget the inflation though) and very high fuel costs. It gets more and more complicated.:confused:

Right people, i wanted to know your opinions about something simple (wont start a new thread).

Considering all that has been going on for time and is still happening, when do yous think GOI is likely to sign a contract for MMRCA and when would the first machine arrive in India. My personal opinion is that signing of contract would take place definitely beyond 2010 (probably 2012) with first a/c arriving in 2015 or so.

I’d wager the Saudis got a raw deal from the EG group, partly because the Saudis so love to line their own pockets…

Nick, let there be no doubt about this. They paid extra 5 million per tornado unit so that Prince Bandar could get his lavish commission. However, even if Saudis are paying 20% extra for these machines (please correct me if if im wrong but they paid 4.7 billion pounds for 72 typoon units…weapons/support excluded), that works out to be around $100 million/EF unit. India wants full ToT and with all those ToT/Offset conditions, negotiations would be a lengthy process. Assuming India signs this contract in 2011/12, its easy to conceive EF unit price (at that time) to be around a $100 million figure even for India’s 126 machines. And as u rightly put it…The problem is that with 230 MKIs, the IAF will find it hard to justify the EF to the jacka$$es who presently run the MOD unless of course EF gives them much superior capability.