Jets & Planes but no UAV's here.

[WilliamB]

Key.Aero is reporting that India has retired there last Mig-27s as of the end of December. The retirement ceremony was held at Jodhpur Air Force Station on December 27th.

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

Got to ready for work but, these from my files as well on India MiG-27.
They were retired on DEC 31, 2019.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/ar...-dec-31-855013
http://www.combataircraft.com/en/New...set-on-Dec-31/
(Links to same article of the first ref.)

Regards,
Pat

[WilliamB]

The March issue of Air Forces Monthly is reporting that Romania has purchased 5 F-16AMs from Portugal. They are to be upgraded to Operational Flight Program M5.2 standard before entering service.
The report also states that Romania has been operating 12 other ex. Portuguese F-16s since some time in 2017. Unfortunately no exact date is given for there entry into service. The F-16 is not currently included in the Romanian OB file. The report states the Romania hopes to obtain a total of 28 F-16s from Portugal, 24 F-16AMs and 4 F-16BMs.

[RC4]

Yes, delivered in 30 Set 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...ature=emb_logo

""
WASHINGTON, Nov 8, 2013 – The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress today of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Romania of weapons, equipment, and support for 12 F-16 MLU Block 15 for an estimated cost of $457 million.

The Government of Romania has requested a possible sale of weapons, equipment, and support for 12 F-16 MLU Block 15 aircraft that will be procured through a third party transfer from Portugal. Articles and services will include:

13 Embedded Global Positioning Systems/Inertial Navigation Systems (EGPS/INS) with GPS Security Devices, Airborne
3 AN/ALQ-131 Electronic Countermeasure Pods
30 AIM-120C Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM)
5 AIM-120C Captive Air Training Missiles (CATMs)
60 AIM-9M Sidewinder Missiles
4 AIM-9M CATMs
48 LAU-129 Launchers
10 GBU-12 Enhanced Guided Bomb Units
18 AGM-65H/KB Maverick Missiles
4 AGM-65 CATMs
15 Multifunctional Information Distribution System/Low Volume Terminals
2 Multifunctional Information Distribution System Ground Support Systems

Also included are spare and repair parts, support equipment, tanker support, ferry services, repair and return services, software development/integration, test and equipment, supply support, personnel training and training equipment, publications and technical data, U.S. Government and contractor technical services, and other related elements of logistics and program support. The estimated cost is $457 million.

The proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve security of a NATO ally which continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress. The proposed sale of weapons, equipment, and support for the transferred F-16s will support Romania’s needs for its own self-defense and enhance the interoperability of these aircraft with those of the U.S. and other NATO nations.

The proposed sale will support the Romanian Air Force’s (RoAF) efforts to equip and utilize the 12 F-16 aircraft it is procuring from Portugal. These aircraft will provide the RoAF with a fleet of modernized multi-role combat aircraft. This proposed sale of weapons, equipment, and follow-on F-16 support will enable Romania to support both its own air defense needs and coalition operations. The RoAF will have no difficultly absorbing these systems into its armed forces.

The proposed sale of this follow-on support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The principal contractors will be:

Elbit Systems of America Fort Worth, Texas

Pratt and Whitney East Hartford, Connecticut

BAE Systems Inc. Arlington, Virginia

Lockheed Martin Corp. Fort Worth, Texas

Northrup Grumman Aerospace Systems Redondo Beach, California

ViaSat Inc. Carlsbad, California

Data Link Solutions LLC Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Snap-On Inc. Kenosha, Wisconsin

Booz Allen Hamilton Engineering Services, LLC McLean, Virginia

There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.

Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to Romania.

There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.

This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.

[DRG]

There was a post someplace on these forums I cannot find now that detailed a lot of reasons why the VIKhR should be set up differently than it is now with HEAT pen and I recall talk of nose and base fuses etc etc but that's all I remember but I do recall I was in the middle of some tests then it got forgotten about until I ran the first "errors" scan for Scenarios I do before starting to assemble the patches and it gave me a high number of "error" reports and it all lead back to that forgotten experiment that had 222 for AP and Heat pen ratings for a missile loaded on an aicraft

Maybe that will shake someone elses memory but it's not critical I know who posted it but the bottom line is that cannot be done with aircraft mounted weapons ( helos yes...aircraft NO ). The only way to make HEAT pen work is give it AP ammo and AP ammo on an aircraft is CLUSTER MUNITIONS.......so the "experiment" has been reversed and VIKhR's are back to the way they need to be set up.

Just FYI.............

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

Well while waiting for the Patch Releases to come out, I offer some comparative and insightful reading. If you are not comfortable in reading technical material, than beyond some of the graphs this isn't for you.

I like AUSA as these guys are mostly aviation specialists and scientists.

They use open and other sources and have the capability to wind tunnel aircraft designs to come up with data concerning radar cross sections etc. that are gleamed from such testing.

The focus here is on F-35 versus many others. What is interesting in some cases, is how viable in todays world some older aircraft still are in certain categories shown in the tables.

It is further interesting to see how what was written then still holds true to what's been posted up to now on F-35.

It is absolutely important to note that the T-50/PAF-FA is and has been DOA since India dropped out of the program about 3/4 years ago.

This is significant in that the tables were using the design capabilities for that program at that time. India specifically dropped out because Russia was trying to cut costs, which felt would (And would end up doing so.) significantly compromise it's "standing" as a 5th GEN fighter. As I've already posted numerous times, most experts now consider the T-50 as a 4th GEN ++ aircraft.

Concerning the J-20 from China, the jury is still out on it as well, however more recent data is showing that it's also closer to an advanced 4th GEN or might end up also in the 4th GEN++ category.

It's important to maintain that information in "the back of your mind" when reading this.

The "bottom-line" is from the aviation "purists" is, and I'll just use our games timeline (Though it goes beyond that.), there is only one true 5TH GEN fighter in the world and that's of course the F-22 RAPTOR.

All that being said this is a very good read and still relevant today.
http://www.ausairpower.net/jsf.html

And they do an excellent job with Anti-Air Missiles as well.

Regards,
Pat

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

GREAT! I'm reading a review of the 1950's "War of the Worlds" re-release by Criterion on Blu-Ray dot com and followed the link contained within the review. How I missed this I don't know!?!

Now I'm left with trying to figure out how to model this craft and to what "country" to assign them to. The best I can figure is "RED" or "GREEN" and the videos are released from the USN and DOD. Though I did see the "Hey Dude" video on national news awhile back.

I'll need to figure out if they're more Air to Air, Air to Ground or Multi-Purpose craft!?!

Just not sure at this time, in the meantime here's the ref.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/28/pent...vy-pilots.html

Back to my review and walk there after.



Regards,
Pat

[WilliamB]

From the August issue of AirForces magazine. The U.S. Air Force has retired their last four AC-130U gunships (unit 786). A farewell fly past took place at Hurlburt AFB in Florida on June 3rd and the last AC-130U left Hurlburt for the storage facility at Davis-Monthan AFB on June 26. Nothing in the article about a replacement aircraft.

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by FASTBOAT TOUGH

GREAT! I'm reading a review of the 1950's "War of the Worlds" re-release by Criterion on Blu-Ray dot com and followed the link contained within the review. How I missed this I don't know!?!

A book I've considered implementing into WinSPMBT or WinWWII is "Footfall". Basically the aliens have modern U.S. equipment vs 1942-1943 WWII.

The aliens show up in late 1942 and pretty much clean clock on all the combatants currently engaged in WWII but over the winter (and it's a tough one with everyone's infrastructure got hammered) various forces unite (more-or-less) to oppose the aliens and U.S., Soviet, German, etc. production is getting to 1943 levels.

The aliens while FAR superior 1-for-1 have a problem ... no manufacturing base (the didn't bring anything along because conquering primitives doesn't require it). Thus losses, even if they kill 20-to-1 cannot be made up, nor can high-tech ammunition (laser guided bombs, sabot rounds, night vision equipment, etc.) be replaced.

My idea was a fixed core modern U.S. force (the aliens) vs the (essentially) endless waves of early 1943 earth forces. VERY limited replacement points for the aliens, they're allowed to repair damaged units but not replace destroyed ones. Helos, air, and off-map artillery/rockets would be AUXILIARY units the designer can gradually reduce scenario-by-scenario to represent the lack of high-tech ammo.

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by WilliamB

From the August issue of AirForces magazine. The U.S. Air Force has retired their last four AC-130U gunships (unit 786). A farewell fly past took place at Hurlburt AFB in Florida on June 3rd and the last AC-130U left Hurlburt for the storage facility at Davis-Monthan AFB on June 26. Nothing in the article about a replacement aircraft.

The AC-130W Stinger II was introduced in Nov 2010 and is armed with even better targeting systems, a single 30mm gattling gun, and precision guided munitions (SDBs, presumably Hellfires, and such).