Originally Posted by FlyingFrog

Very well written post rajkhalsa.

Also, this is very true:

Btw, Is PAK/FA still going? Haven't heard about its news for half year now.

Thanks

The Pak-fa project is still going on. I read an article recently about how the basic design was submitted to the clients and met with approval.



Dameon, the_13th_redneck,

Well, India manufactures its Russian a/c through Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) under deep license, so availability of a/c spares were never an issue. Even with Russia leveraging India to commit to the purchise from Russia of MiG-29Ks for the ex-Gorshkov, spares and if IN requires it additional manufacture of this a/c will be made in India.

HAL also sells MiG parts and upgrade packages to third countries, and is expected to upgrade Malaysian Su-27s into an MKI-lite "MKM" configuration.

With Pak-fa being a joint project, in which both sides are equally involved in the design, manufacture and ownership, no doubt the a/c and spares will be made in India.

Interestingly enough, potential suppliers the next (final?) major purchise of foreign a/c that will replace the old -21s and -27s that are being phased out -- M2K-5s, MiG-29SMTs, and even F-16 blk50s -- have all offered deep license agreements to India, wherein, like with the Russian a/c, additional a/c + spares will be manufactured in India.

An update on the PAK-FA

Looks like its confirmed

India, Russia to build fighter aircraft

NEW DELHI, DHNS:

At the conclusion of parleys on military cooperation for two days, India and Russia have agreed to jointly develop a fifth-generation multi-role, multi-functional fighter aircraft besides adhering to a stricter intellectual property rights (IPR) regime.

“Conceptual presentations have been made on the aircraft. Now both sides will sit and work out the details,” Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters here on Thursday in the presence of his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov, who is scheduled to accompany the Russian President Vladimir Putin from Friday.

Though both countries were deliberating on the futuristic fifth generation aircraft for the last couple of years, this is for the first time they have agreed on the concept.

Thanks for the news.

I think PAK/FA is really going too slow. F/A-22 would already be in service when PAK/FA is flying.

But to be frank, I really doubt about the "Stealth" thing of the all the future 5th Gen Jets. In case the "Stealth" thing is broken, then some of the existing 4th Gen Jets are not really that "inferior" to 5th Gen jets more.

I also don't know PRC turned the deal down when PRC was asked to join the PAK/FA thing.

By the time this new aircraft is in service America will have already started developing the replacements for the F-22 and JSF.....thats how America works we get one off the production line and start working on it's replacement.

Originally Posted by Dameon

By the time this new aircraft is in service America will have already started developing the replacements for the F-22 and JSF.....thats how America works we get one off the production line and start working on it's replacement.

I hate you to say that since I am gonna go sleep I hate to have a nightmare

Ciao

Don't worry it normaly takes us around 10-14 years to design something good......... Plus the JSF and F-22 have like a 30 year Career they say....hey the B-52 will have been around roughly 100 years before it leaves service.

Originally Posted by Dameon

Don't worry it normaly takes us around 10-14 years to design something good......... Plus the JSF and F-22 have like a 30 year Career they say....hey the B-52 will have been around roughly 100 years before it leaves service.

and we still don't have a decent replacement for it

Well, let's see, the US will get first dibs on the Joint Strike Fighter, so that means it will be years before it will become available to other countries. And then their is the cost, that is an expensive plane, India might not be able to afford. Much like Russia's new MIG, it is the most advanced fighter ever built but they can not afford more than a handful, maybe 20, and those would probably only be used for escorting the President's or Prime Minister's plane when traveling.

The JSF is being designed to be a cheap yet good aircraft to help in all branches of service. I don't think it will be that exspensive even though it has cost around 300 billion to design I believe.

the unit cost of the F-35 is $28mil, compared to the F/A-18 E/F at $57 mil. so in theory the F-35 is a lot cheaper. they designed the plane to be low maintenance anyway.