GA

SSS seems to have a lot of anonymous sources in almost every field and tends to make a lot of predictions. Just go through his articles written over past couple of years and decide for urself. If i remember correctly, some of his sources had also told him that Pakistan would hand OBL over to US just before 2004 presedential elections…and that is just one example. 🙂

I thought there was some claim that the Chinese produced Su-27s were of exceptional finish, I guess thats not true looking at those pics?

Unless im mistaken, the source of claim was a sukhoi official and not china. Following is a link which confirms this, though im sure u can find many more.
http://www.uscc.gov/researchpapers/2000_2003/reports/mair1.htm
This individual also confirmed comments by a Sukhoi official at the 2002 Zhuhai show that Shenyang J-11s have a better production finish than those made at the KnAAPO factory in Komsomolsk

Nobody knows, kind of strange if you ask me, esp if its to inducted next year.

This is where i’d agree would u…rather strange. But hopefully, we only have to wait for another year or so. 🙂

My feeling from looking at the FC-1 video where they showed the cockpit, the avionics suite will be very similar to the F-7PGs that the PAF recieved in 2002. Including the radar and screen layouts. Building the computing, avionics suites, glass cockpits, manchine human interface of a modern 21st century fighter is complex.

Nothing about the FC-1 so far seems like it has anything complex in it, so I think the F-7PG avionics comparison is pretty good- its my “speculation” and I am sticking with that unless you can prove me otherwise

Simple logic dictates that repeating a task second time round is usually easier than first time. Since no one is claiming FC-1 to be as advanced as J-10, and work on J-10 has been going on for years, its quite logical that experience gained from J-10 related project must have come quite handy when designing/building FC-1…hence the project may not have been as complex as u anticipate.

Enough of this FC-1 discussion, I think I have proved my point.

How does one prove mere speculation (please refer to ur own post where u refer to it as its my “speculation”)? I would think that one needs solid hard evidence to gain some merit for one’s speculation…or r u saying that lack of solid evidence in itself is a proof for ur speculations???

PS. In my humble opinion, its not a matter of presence/lack of evidence but rather hyper patriotism which leads to self-deceit…let me quote Demosthenes who said Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true. This is probably the reason that while so many on one side of the border consider projects like LCA and Arjun to be a failures, many on the other side thought that J-10 was a mere figment of chinese imagination (even in 2003) and that FC-1 first flight pictures were nothing more than great photoshops (August 2003). 🙂

Since CAC was involved in R&D of both J-10 and FC-1, its quite logical that experience gained from J-10 related projects must have been utilised during R&D of FC-1.

Defence Ministry constitutes committee on MiG crashes

India to get MiG-29K by 2007: RSK:

Considering the facts that PAF’s most urgent requirement is an active BVRAAM and that a western avionics suit could not be finalised (for whatever reason), PAF simply decided to go for a chinese package that would fulfil their primary requirement with SD-10.

As for engine issue, only time would tell. No doubt, India holds a lot of influence in russia, but Russians can’t ignore chinese interests either…please correct me if im wrong but china replaced India as russia’s top arms buyer sometime back. Many have quoted Ivanov’s statement vis-a-vis RD-93’s re-export, but they seem to forget another statement by russian defence dept (issued a day later) stating that Russia would sell weapons to pakistan unless India takes into consideration Russian interest. Question is what are Russian interests? Would India go for Mig-29M2 instead of M2K-5? Would they buy S-400 instead of Patriots? and so on and so forth? It all seems a big political game, and we’ve another year or so to wait. 😉

Fighter aircraft; India watching Sino-Pak development keenly

show me any defence expert who’s happy with a budget. even in the US there is much tug of war over a $400+ billion budget and a $80 billion capex

Yet most of us do quote the very same defence experts when their views r similat to thos of ours.

PS. Im sure this is only one section of defence experts. There might be many who may consider this to be more than enough to meet indian requirements.

India’s military experts disappointed with defense budget hike

Mon Feb 28, 6:23 AM ET South Asia – AFP

NEW DELHI (AFP) – The 7.8 percent increase in India’s military budget to 830 billion rupees (19 billion dollars) is not enough to fund a badly-needed modernisation of the country’s arsenal, analysts said.

The hike in spending for the new fiscal year comes despite peace talks with rival Pakistan but it was less than expected by some analysts who argue the country needs a real shopping spree to replace outdated equipment.

It was also considerably less than the 18 percent increase put through by the Congress-led coalition government in July for the year ending March 31.

“It is much below our expectations because a rise of 60 billion rupees is less than 10 percent which is the minimum hike needed to fund new acquisitions,” said Uday Bhaskar, director of India’s independent Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis.

Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram Monday said some 344 billion rupees of the the budget for the financial year starting April 1 would be used to pay for military hardware and supplies already ordered and to upgrade India’s ageing arsenal of Russian-built jet fighters and missile systems.

He said the increase would be enough because the government had managed to use its budget allocation for the current financial year of 770 billion rupees in full for the first time in several years by overcoming corruption and inefficiency.

Analysts say the increase will make it difficult to buy new hardware wanted by the three service branches.

“It is a standstill military budget and may put a crimp on acquisition plans,” said Brigadier General B.C. Khanduri, an author on the battle honors of the Indian army.

“The modernisation and military acquisition programme that India has set for itself needs appropriate and sustained increases in the capital component of the budget,” Bhaskar added. “The fact that there has been a marginal drop (in the rate of increase) this year is worrying.”

India, one of the world’s biggest arms buyers with one million-plus troops, is looking for 126 new jet fighters to replace an accident-prone fleet of Russian-built MiGs, six new submarines from France, an anti-missile system from the United States and rocket launchers from Russia.

Kapil Kak, a former air marshall and director for the Center for Strategic Studies, said the budget should rise as much as 35 percent annually for the next several years to pay for modernisation.

“India has not seen modernisation over a 10-year period,” Kak said.

He noted the previous Bharatiya Janata Party-led government ordered billions of dollars in new equipment before losing power in May 2004.

In the past few years, India bought the Phalcon radar system from Israel for 1.1 billion dollars, a used aircraft carrier from Russia for 1.5 billion dollars and 66 Hawk jet trainer planes from Britain for 1.45 billion dollars.

India’s Congress-led government came to power last May on a pro-poor ticket and with outside support from four communist parties so it is under pressure to funnel money into the health, education and social sectors to keep its political coalition intact.