Atreides

24 April 2008

New Delhi: The Eurofighter consortium, makers of the Typhoon combat jets, said Thursday they were inviting India to join their consortium as a partner. The move, said analysts, is designed to boost chances of the consortium to land the Indian Air Force's $11 billion contract for 126 medium range multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA).

The Eurofighter consortium comprises Alenia SpA of Italy's Alenia Aeronautica, BAE Systems PLC of the UK and the Spanish and German units of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co - EADS Casa and EADS Germany.

Interestingly, India becomes the first non-European country to be invited to join the consortium, a senior executive from EADS informed the media. The offer, according to the executive, is contingent upon India opting for the Eurofighter for its air force. The executive spoke on conditions of anonymity.

The executive said that manufacturing parts of the combat aircraft in India will also help the makers of the Eurofighter meet the Indian government's offset requirements if it buys the aircraft, he said.

Adding increased weight to the offer was a comment from chief executive, military air systems, EADS, Bernhard Gerwert, who said at a press conference, "If India becomes a partner, they will also become a partner in all future technology enhancement."

"As part of our industrial cooperation offer, we invite India to become our member," said Gerwert.

India's ministry of defence has issued formal invitations to six foreign companies to supply 126 multi-role combat jets in a deal potentially worth about $11 billion.

The Indian Air Force currently operates a mix of Russian-made MiG and Sukhoi aircraft, as well as UK Jaguars and French Mirages.

Apart from the Eurofighter, Lockheed Martin Corp's F-16 Falcon, Boeing Co's F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, Dassault Aviation's Rafale and the Swedish Gripen fighter are also in contention for the deal.

Eurofighter plans to submit its bid for the combat jets on 28 April, which is technically the last day for receiving bids, a statement from Eurofighter said.

Though Indian defence regulations require foreign military companies, which have won contracts worth more than $71 million, to reinvest at least 30 per cent of the contract value back into the country's defence sector, in the case of the combat aircraft deal, this offset requirement has been raised to 50 per cent.

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India has successfully launched an Israeli spy satellite into orbit, officials at the Sriharikota space station in southern India say.

The Israeli press is reporting that the satellite will improve Israel's ability to monitor Iran's military activities.

Indian officials that given these sensitivities, the operation was secret and carried out under tight security.

The Tecsar satellite - sometimes referred to as the Polaris - was put into space on Monday morning.

'Sinister tie-up'

Tecsar is said to have enhanced footage technology, which allows it to transmit images regardless of daytime and weather conditions.

It is considered to be one of the most advanced spy satellites that India has put into orbit to date.

India is eager to compete in the world space technology market

Correspondents say the launch was the second commercial mission on behalf of another country that has been carried out by the Indian Space Research Organisation.

"It was a grand success," an unnamed official told the AFP news agency from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Israeli newspapers reported that both Israeli and Indian space engineers were at the launch, and that 80 minutes afterwards, the Israel Aerospace Industries' (IAI) ground station began receiving Tecsar's first signals.

The 300kg (650-pound) satellite is reported to be Israel's most advanced space craft, and equipped with a camera that can take pictures in almost any weather conditions.

Israel reportedly took the decision to launch the satellite from India three years ago, and asked for Delhi's help because it lacks a vehicle capable of boosting the satellite into a polar orbit.

"The kind of low-earth polar orbit they are putting the satellite into, it is meant to give Israel the capability to keep an eye on the Iranian nuclear programme," an unnamed defence analyst told the AFP news agency.

"This is bound to be seen in the Islamic world as a sinister tie-up between Israel and India," he said.

Experts also say that the launch is an "important milestone" in the commercialisation of India's 45-year-old space programme, which put an Italian satellite in orbit in April last year for a fee of $11m.

Correspondents say that India is eager to compete against the US, Russia, China, the Ukraine and the European Space Agency in providing commercial satellite launch services, a market worth about $2.5bn a year.

India started its space programme in 1963, and has since designed, built and launched its own satellites into space.

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Refreshing to see Norway considering a non F-16 blah option. Translates into more fuel and weapons payload. Go Sweden !

Could not watch the video as the yokel music just drove me insane. The best part of the video was hitting the close window.

in the right hands the F-15C will take the SU-30MKI..no doubt

and they say that there aren't any skillfull pilot able to do the maneuvers needed to take down the F-15

so it's not that easy..

That is the funniest thing I've read so far the F-15 does have an advanced radar but in terms of combat maneuverability the F-15 is no where near the MKI regardless of what the Eagle fans think. The stereotype that anything U.S is perfect and anything Russian is sub par is ridiculous at best.

I pay close to 1.89 cdn dollars/litre for my diesel TDI but I get an average of 1200 Km's on one tank... awesome, I always laugh when I see the look on the faces of crapUV and pickup drivers.

Fantastic work Julhelm. Really looking forward to this one.

Why did they choose a baldy ? Bald people freak me out.

Holy crap Russo, that is fantastic and if it gets the attention that you gave to Lightning I know it will be just fantastic. Thank you. This is one of my all time favourite Russian bomber prototype

Craig as a user of mods and yes I am especially enjoying the EF-2000 regardless of the comprimises that those of us without WOI have to make. I truly hope that the aforementioned incident does not discourage you from any future projects that you might have been considering. The number of us who appreciate and are grateful for your contribution outweighs the "others". Thank you again for EF-2000 she is a beaut. :yes:

Superb looking J-10 !

What if ?????????....among others.....

I knew it, only a matter of time of time before a what if IDF skin poped up, still refreshing to see a new western European aircraft in those colours.

Wish the same IDF skins were available for the MIG series.

Lets not argue taste shall we. Some of my buds ride Harleys other Hondas, Ducatis and even Buells. Personally I dont care what you ride as long as you ride. I prefer rockets because then I can do track days with friends and do tomfoolery that would kill me on the street, man I'm jonzing for some track days.

You're correct I've had it happen with the Gripen as well, but mostly have noticed it happening with the latest aircraft mods. I hopwe you did'nt take my previous post as a negative towards the Typhoon. Just wondering why it happens with some a/c's.

Good for you. As a fellow rider I have to say "Two wheels move the soul, four wheels move lard" and that is quite a fun bike you got there, I started on a 2004 GS500F and then moved on to a 2006 GSXR-600 day and night difference, the supersport 600's will hurt you real bad if you dont respect their power output.

I cant ride yet as I have no insurance since the time I quit my job to goto college, so now I get my kicks by donning my helmet sitting on the bike in the garage and goin vroom

Has anyone else here encountered this issue ? When playing single player strike missions that once Alt+N is hit the flight warps and when the ground target button is hit the target is a considerable distance away, I then hit Alt+N again and it said near home base (or something to that effect), I then proceeded to have my flight follow me up and flew the distance to the target, before a single shot was fired the wingmen were out of ammo and when I returned to base they'd all crashed.

EDIT:- Post was just another repetion of missing file for SFP1

Yea, Thank you Craig, mate I owe you a dozen pints of the finest ale. And the fact that such high quality work is freeware is extremely appreciated by broke people like me. :yes:

Looking real good Veltro.

Colbert Rocks. Long live the Colbert nation.

Always loved the Bear, the fastest prop in the world. Thanks for sharing and thanks for making one to all involved in this project.

Without being a pest, which model in game according to you (Spec) would represent the most high-tech F-111 ?

EDIT:- Nevermind, you did say that the F model was represented quite accurately in game as well. Thanks Spec.

Question for those who truly know about the F-111 Vark, which one out of the pack would/could be considered the most advanced F-111 out there and yes this is the first time I've actually downloaded the F-111 and would like to know which flavour is the most capable. Any insights ? Cheers.