Typhoid

yup. I recall that too but I don't remember which country fell for that particular sales pitch. :yes:

my point was that they only kept one squadron in operation because of the high cost of maintaining them and their low availabilty compared to the western aircraft they also have. (My ref for that was a direct quote by the Luftwaffe commander on a tour of Cheyenne Mountain some years ago.)

but with random availablity. Sometimes, more of them would show up. One of the key indicators for us was their 48 hour standdown. Then all $#@% would break loose. So with their advanced planning they could surge for a short time. Hard to replicate that variability in SF/WOE. We still see that today when they deploy to a forward base and standdown for 48 hours before they fly the exercise or operation they had planned.

since I am a defense contractor I will point out that (rant on) its the US Commerce Dept and their idiotic export control and foreign disclosure rules and Congressional meddling that cause all that! (rant off) pause. deep breath............. sigh..................

no. Cheap - yes. But their in-service rates are abysmal by our standards and they take a lot of maintenance per flight hour. In past decades we noted that one reason they had 6 times the air order of battle against us was so that they could hope to get an equivelant number into the air. for export aircraft the reliability of the supply line has also been an issue. That has also proven to be a hinderence in their marketing because most countries recognize that and take it into account. Their newer aircraft are reported to be much better, but still no where near US or Western European standards. as a case study - the Luftwaffe inherited a rather large supply of Migs and Su's. They could not afford to operate them because they cost so much more per flight hour than the other aircraft they had. So they kept just a handful for opposition training and junked the rest.

its tough to beat the cost figures. And the Mig35OVT will be a highly capable combat aircraft. The issues though will also include supportability and reliability (not strong points for the Russian aircraft). But since they are already operating advanced Su-30's and Mig-29K's (soon) the Mig has a strong base already established. If I were a betting man, I'd say the Mig will take it.

Tough choices. They all look like pretty good planes. I suspect the decision will come down to how good the contract off-set package is.

we could all contract to the IAF to do their fly-off for them.......

well, in a campaign if you make it to friendly territory and eject, the campaign doesn't end in defeat. You fly again. But ejecting over the fuel tanks you just bombed or the troops you just straged is in poor form......

it is even more the issue of the nationalization and seizure of assets of American citizens by Castro which is why the embargo was initially imposed and why it remains in place. The embargo has nothing to do with communism and everything to do with sanctions in response to theft.

"There's one in the MarcFighters site under development but it's been a couple of weeks now and it still isn't available for download..." this stuff takes a while to do right. If you want something bad, you get it bad. But that doesn't happen here much. Patience, and join one of the teams.

I think that would be way cool. I'd like to see that and extended to a lot of the other ships that have been uploaded in the past and that don't currently work.

mine too. But jumping into it is fun and you may get the hang of it. I dont' know if anyone is working on an updated weapons pack.

!!!!!! I had previously skipped over that because we already had the stock A-10. I had not realized there were 4 aircraft in there. OUTSTANDING!! Downloaded it and checked it out. Way Cool!!!!

now we need an Indian-Pakistan terrain......

no

I think we have a new weapons pack modder! Welcome aboard!!

it certainly has been keeping us (NORAD) busy this summer. Back to the good old days again!

Amen. May he rest in peace.

yes, everyone in a multiplayer has to have the exact same load, mods and planes.

sorry to hear that. I've been enjoying your sim of one my old stomping grounds. Hope it all works out.

when a nation sends its military to war, it has to back them up. Putting them in, taking the casualties necessary to achieve the objectives, and then bailing out and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is a betrayal of their service and sacrifice. any politician who does that is treating the troops killed and injured as purely expendable. when a war is on and forces engaged - it gets a little vague to use the term expendable in the context of the forces and leadership. We (DOD and high level military personel) do not send forces into harms way lightly, but do so with the intention to achieve some objective. In so doing we know that we will take casualties. We measure the goal vs the expected level of casualties and the commander makes the call. That does not mean we consider them expendable, but recognize that war is war and is ultimately a brutal, chaotic process. A Russian general one time described his decision in WWII when he faced an objective with a mine field in the way and no mine clearing means or time. He lined up the regiments in line and marched them through. His lead regiment took some pretty heavy casualties but cleared the way for the next two who took the objective on time. His point was that he took fewer casualties that way overall because he won the battle. Hard decision. my beef with McNamara, to briefly put this back on its original subject, is that he considered the war unwinnable, pursued pointless strategies and put forces into combat believing they could not win for purely political purposes. They were expendable for his purposes which were not to actually win the war he and LBJ committed them to. Once engaged in war, a nation has to win it. Against the current enemies who's objective is our destruction, we have to win. Defeat, surrender or negotiated withdrawal are not viable options. To withdraw is to betray the forces committed and betray those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. Our Democratic Party leadership today, as in Vietnam, has chosen that course as did McNamara.

the weapons pack includes the AIM-54C. It doesn't go past that so the 54C+ and the various blocks and ECCM's are not here. Have to leave some chance for the Migs........