Thread: Should we be concerned about China's air capability?

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

I love how the thread swings.

The hypothisis of that leads to a cold war between India & China.

With Pakistan and the Middle eastern countries all vying for power I'm glad we live where we do.

Ditto

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

and what does that mean?

We have sent one pilot over to start training and another of our test pilots to join him later this year.

Thats two pilots in training and one aeroplane wheeled out and flown......it isn't delivered....it's not here , is it?

The RAAF say they expect to have a squadron operational in 2020.

How long ago did this venture start?

This venture started about 15 years and 400 Billion,yes thats FOUR HUNDRED BILLION dollars ago.The plane is not cleared for stormy,rain or instrument flying and has not been cleared to fire or drop any weapons,the Lightening,Gripen and Rafale have all been cleared to do everything they are designed to do and except for the Gripen have been used in widespread combat operations. Pat

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Could also be something to do with Pakistan.

i feel another rambling post coming on. i it very hard for me to get this stuff into txt

OK not Pakistan but Afghanistan. now called the sand pit but until a few years ago it was called the roundabout. why because every one was trying to control the place but no one has succeeded yet. even the Mongol gave up.

but in more recent times. the Indians and Pakistanis got the poms out. then the pakis and Indians started scraping. the poms sort of sided with the pakis a bit more than the Indians because they didn't want to unset the Afghans and Arabs, they all being Muslims etc. so India got some kit from the Russians. now at this time china and India were best of buddy's hate the poms hate the west but then they sort of stabled them in the back and attacked India. as a result India shrunk a bit and china was ****ed off at then for getting Russian kit because the Russians and Chinese were banging heads as well. so the Indians are now really pevvved at the Chinese because they have broken promises and invaded them. never to be trusted again!!, so the Indians start buying kit from the poms again and the yanks start influencing and supplying Pakistan.


today at this time India is jointly developing the new Russian / Indian 5 gen stealth fighter.

that sort of says it all

mmmm , so those big ol' chinese bombers can strike India,Pakiistan and Afghanistan from the Spratlies.

I guess the Russian/Indian joint fighter will be developed and operational before ours will be.

Sure does say it all.

Originally Posted by PAT303

This venture started about 15 years and 400 Billion,yes thats FOUR HUNDRED BILLION dollars ago.The plane is not cleared for stormy,rain or instrument flying and has not been cleared to fire or drop any weapons,the Lightening,Gripen and Rafale have all been cleared to do everything they are designed to do and except for the Gripen have been used in widespread combat operations. Pat

Our government decided that they wanted to be at the front of the que for delivery and have a say in development so there are drawbacks.

The SAAB first flew in 88 but did not enter service until 97 there were problems, cost $40 to $60 million each and its a light multi purpose plane still will not do every thing we want it to do.

The Rafale is a good aircraft despite its age 1st flew in 86 but not operational until 2001 again it had problems at the start. The b model the most likely one for us is currently at $101 million each.

Just like mobile phones you want the latest I phone you pay the price and download the software patches

We have spent quite a few billion on Hornets,Super Hornets and on the JSF,if the JSF works we will get 57?? or so in 2020 which means our Air Force will have 25 to 30 planes flying at any one time,so for our quite a few billion we have a token AF buzzing about,if we had bought Gripens,Lightenings or Rafale's we would be flying them now,not in 2020 but now,and for our quite a few billion we would have an AF flying not 25-30 but any amount we care to have,200-250 planes and we could have signed on to the three other builds and got them made to our spec and updated as needed. Pat

The Gripen NG is the most popular and a very reasonable costs. Also Sweden allows transfer of technology.
There are some info and comparison HERE

I know its prob just a typo but the lightening is the f35