Hi Ink,

I was pretty amazed when I read this story last week, but prepared to have an open mind on this intriguing development.

Where the Guardian quote Jane’s, I think they specifically mean Rahul Bedi, who I believe is one of Jane’s correspondents.

What the Tajik defence ministry said on this subject on Monday (24th April) was as follows:

“Moreover, I regard the information as unreliable and not corresponding to the reality,” the first deputy of the Tajik defence minister, Ramil Nodirov, stressed.

So I guess, for now, it’s a “watch this space”.

Best regards

Steve Rush

10 Rafale M
about 15 B
about 5 C

It’s hard in this moment to get informations in the press and on the Internet about the last deliveries, if someone can help in giving exact numbers it would be greatly appreciated.

Gui,

the highest Rafale B serial seen in service so far is 311. So Adl’A has 303 to 311 (with CEAM 05.330 and now 01.007).

312 to 316 have all been seen at Merignac, but I don’t believe these have been “delivered” as yet. Presumably they will now go to EC 01.007 directly.

The highest Rafale C seen so far is 105. 106 has been seen at Merignac but, again, this is still with Dassault, as far as I know.

Hope it helps.

Steve Rush

Latest MiG-29OVT News

Klimov Plant To Build Engines With Thrust Vectoring for Second MiG-29OVT

A decision was made to build the second MiG-29OVT fighter equipped with two RD-33 thrust-vectored engines.

“The Klimov plant will make three such engines, two for operation and one in reserve, that will be used in the second MiG-29OVT fighter,” the plant’s Director General Alexander Vatagin told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.

He noted that the plant had built three such engines so far – two for the MiG-29OVT and a reserve one.

According to Vatagin, the first MiG-29OVT will be rolled out for public demonstration, including in air, at the ILA-2006 air show in Berlin this May.

The aircraft will be engined with production versions of the RD-33 featuring the supercharged thrust of 8.3 tonnes and thrust vectoring.

The MiG-29OVT was derived from the MiG-29M experimental aircraft. The KliVT nozzle of the RD-33 engine has the elevation of +/- 15 degrees and traverse of +/- 8 degrees in all flight modes, including when supercharged. The deflecting nozzle is interconnected with the modernized fly-by-wire system that enables the aircraft to perform air maneuvers at very small altitudes.

Source: Interfax-AVN (7th April, 2006)

I do not think that Montenegro needs an Air Force,just like Slovenia.They are simply too small.They should focus on helicopters only.

That’s already “officially-stated” policy: no fixed-wing assets whatsoever, just a helicopter-equipped airmobile unit.

Steve Rush

Just my humble opinion, but…..

Ken,

Invoice the publisher for your pictures: send them a bill for what you consider a fair and proper sum for their use of each photo. Make sure you identify your photos to them by page and position thereof etc.

If they don’t pay up, or reach a settlement with you, then use the small claims court as a means of redress.

As I see it you needn’t involve a lawyer nor significant costs at this stage: approach the publisher with an invoice as if they’ve “forgotten” to pay what they owe you as the originator of the images.

You might even sort this out with one very short phone call, talk here of expensive litigation is a complete red herring at this stage.

Hope it helps

Steve Rush

Chaps,

the shots of ZG989 in this month’s AirForces Monthly and AIR International were taken by me, so I’ve added a couple below without any worries of copyright infringement 😉

It is the very same Defender that was used in the trials of the ASTOR radar, but what its current equipment fit is as of today, is so far unconfirmed.

Rather than being in RAF colours/markings, it’s pretty much the same as the other Army Air Corps examples (see recent photo of ZG845 that I took at the bottom), just without the titles applied. As far as is known ZG989 is still at Bembridge, IoW most of the time, and was operating out of Coltishall doing trials of equipment fit.

As for the “microphone” under the wing, I’m not 100% sure what it actually is, but I’ve noticed an identical appendage on ZG845 too: maybe somebody would care to identify this please?

Best regards

Steve Rush