“And Sauron, no 40 “30 year old designed Su-27s” would cost 3.2B, heck India paid 1.6B for 40 Su-30Ks. even if you minus set up costs. training facilities, personel etc, these F-15s will cost about 70M a peace! If some one tells me that this is not a bit pricy then what the heck is?”

Ok they wanted a deep striker with all weather capability so right off the bat the F-15K is the only one left standing. The Su-35 offered nothing in the way of the all weather strike ability of the F-15K all it would offer would be promises that one day it might. The F-15E already before the competition could make use of GPS guided bombs and such while neither the Rafale, Su-35 nor EF-2000 did.

By the time the multi role EF-2000s and Rafales enter service the F-15K will likely be already completely delivered. And the Su-30K is not an all weather striker hell it totes around FAB-250s.

Then add the fact that the ROKAF makes use of American missiles like the AIM-120, AIM-7F/M and AIM-9L/M which takes out the Su-35 again as it uses Russian weapons so that would be more money spent to buy missiles which work on one plane. The F-15K is getting the AIM-9X. The North Koreans could barely counter the F-4D/Es in air combat much less the KF-16C/Ds.

Oh yeah and in wartime seeing as the USA would likely be side by side with them they can get parts and missiles a lot easier for the F-15K. Yeah the Rafale, EF-2000 and Su-35 look nice but none were ready by then. And to talk about the F-15E being old so what it was fully ready to be a deep striker which is what they needed not a promise that by 2008 the plane might be a deep striker.

So yeah Korea made the smart move and bought a proven deep striker and not a promise.

It can make use of several advanced American weapons…

AIM-120C
AIM-9X
SLAM-ER
AGM-88C
AGM-65
JDAM

I think it was a very good buy on the part of the ROKAF. They got a proven platform and can be very sure the supplier would be helping them in a time of war. Plus it was the only platform which does not have an in doubt future and is already able to do the deep strike missions they need.

So they made the right buy to fill in what they needed.

“Oh duh, I forgot the centerline hardpoint Either way, it carries three heavy weapons to the MiG-29M’s four”

But then again the MiG-29M does not carry as good as air to ground weapons as the Mirage 2000 family. The Mirage 2000-5 Mk.2 can make use of the long range SCALP EG (155-mile range) and APACHE (80 mile range) along with the AASM. The MiG-29M has nothing like those three weapons. It can also make use of laser guided bombs like the MiG-29M can do and can use the PGM-500/1000 family, the AS-30L, AM-39 Mk.2 and the ARMAT (if you wanted to). It could carry 2 AASMs, 4 MICA EM, 2 MICA IR and 2 external fuel tanks. So when you get down to it the Mirage 2000 can carry superior weapons into combat. The Mirage 2000-5 Mk.2 would add a new dimension in strike operations the MiG-29M could not add.

Here you go….

F-5E/F
F-5A/B
RF-5A
A-37B
A-1E/H/G/J
AC-119
AC-47
T-37
T-28
T-41
C-130A
C-123
C-119K
DHC-2/5
C-47
U-17
O-1
L-18
CH-47A
UH-1B/D/H

“Last year, RSK MiG concluded contracts
totaling 900 million dollars for deliveries this year of MiG-29 for
Bangladesh, Vietnam, Yemen, Myanmar and Sudan.”

I have heard nothing at all about a sale to Vietnam.

I do not think that is correct news.

The Mirage IIIO ROSE I with the Griffo M3 radar is tasked with air defense operations and uses the R-550 Mk.2 (Magic II) and can use the AIM-9L. The 20 Mirage 5EF ROSE IIs use a FLIR as opposed to the Griffo M3 and are tasked with “all weather” strike operations and can use the R-550 Mk.2 (Magic II) and laser guided bombs of the GBU-10/12, the AS-30L and various types of dumb ordnance (Mk.8X family, CBU-10, etc..) and of course could be getting/have gotten South African glide bombs (Raptor I/II). I think about 14 of the Mirage 5EFs are ROSE Is and use the Griffo M3 radar and have an air defense tasking and 6 of the 40 bought Mirage 5EFs were two seat trainers.

On how good they are it is debatable and open to opinion. The upgrade was a very good move on the part of the PAF to improve their weakness in air defense and deep strike due to the non availability of the F-16A/B Block 15s. While it was not the most ambitious Mirage III/5 upgrade out there it still improved the PAF ability. The Mirage 5EFs with the FLIR seem very important as other then the F-16s, the very old A-5s and some older Mirage 5s the PAF did not have a good strike fleet and AFAIK these were at the time the only birds other (the other being the F-16) which could sling LGBs. The ability to use LGBs allows the F-16 to be spared for more “vital” work.

Now the planes could be taken further still (Tom mentioned something about the PAF about to get an outside WVR capability…R-Darter?) and then you have the high possibility of the Raptor I/II being in PAF service or about to enter service. So while these birds cannot move mud or dogfight like a Mirage 2000C/E they are still of much use to the resource limited PAF and will be so for years to come. So the upgrade was the right move even if it did not tip the balance it helped from making the PAF a non player.

To bad the PAF never fitted canards on these babies…

…….