Warbirds Thread

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
First apparent looks in the decadent West at Myanmar's fancy new Su-30SME Jet Fighters Purchased from Russia back in 2018. Myanmar apparently will have six of them.





The SME is an export variant of the Su-30M and costs an estimated $34 million per jet. They will be the new mainstay of the Myanmar Air Force and usher in a new chapter in that countries glorious aerial history.

According to Wikipedia, the Myanmar Air Force actually operates over eighty jets (not including jet trainers), mostly older Chinese/Pakistani and Russian jets, some modernized by Israeli in recent decades.

Possessing an Air Force with as many different model jet aircraft as possible is of course, a South Asian tradition of which AFAIK India is still in the lead despite recent attempts by Pakistan, Thailand and Myanmar to further complicate diversify their combat aircraft inventories.
 
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ATP

Well-known member
First apparent looks in the decadent West at Myanmar's fancy new Su-30SME Jet Fighters Purchased from Russia back in 2018. Myanmar apparently will have six of them.





The SME is an export variant of the Su-30M and costs an estimated $34 million per jet. They will be the new mainstay of the Myanmar Air Force and usher in a new chapter in that countries glorious aerial history.

According to Wikipedia, the Myanmar Air Force actually operates over eighty jets (not including jet trainers), mostly older Chinese/Pakistani and Russian jets, some modernized by Israeli in recent decades.

Possessing an Air Force with as many different model jet aircraft as possible is of course, a South Asian tradition of which AFAIK India is still in the lead despite recent attempts by Pakistan, Thailand and Myanmar to further complicate diversify their combat aircraft inventories.


Especially,that they never cared about maintaining them as they should be.
To be honest,all they need are old planes to burn partisants,becouse if India decide to annex them,few modern planes do not save their country.
And they do not need them to fight war with Malaya,too.
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
The SME is an export variant of the Su-30M and costs an estimated $34 million per jet. They will be the new mainstay of the Myanmar Air Force and usher in a new chapter in that countries glorious aerial history.

More specifically, the Su-30SME is the export version of the Su-30SM, which is the Russian version of the Su-30 MKI that was jointly developed by Sukhoi (Irkut) and India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

This competes with the Su-30MK, which is a rival Su-30 "line" which was created by Sukhoi (Komsomolsk-on-Amur) for China (Su-30MKK, Su-30 MK2), Uganda (Su-30 MK2), Indonesia (Su-30MK2), Vietnam (Su-30MKV), and then also backported to Russian domestic service (Su-30M2 and then Su-35).

The internal competition between IAPO and KnAPO is pretty interesting; while both are badged as Sukhoi, the two aircraft factories have operated as de facto standalone companies since the fall of the Soviet Union and have each independently developed their "own" lineages of modernized Flanker models by separately evolving the original Su-27.
 

Sailor.X

Cold War Veteran
Founder
Also one question that has been on my mind for a few days now. If a country builds a non stealthy combat jet that can travel at Mach 5 or greater. Can a Stealth Fighter even engage it in combat? I mean Sure the non stealth jet might not be able to get a target lock until very close range on an F-22 or F-35. But the Hypersonic jet would be faster than the entire payload of the F-22 and F-35. Makes me wonder if other Nations have been thinking about this too. And doing research into countering stealth in that way.
 

Bacle

When the effort is no longer profitable...
Founder
Also one question that has been on my mind for a few days now. If a country builds a non stealthy combat jet that can travel at Mach 5 or greater. Can a Stealth Fighter even engage it in combat? I mean Sure the non stealth jet might not be able to get a target lock until very close range on an F-22 or F-35. But the Hypersonic jet would be faster than the entire payload of the F-22 and F-35. Makes me wonder if other Nations have been thinking about this too. And doing research into countering stealth in that way.
Lasers, and railguns.

Speed is just another engineering challenge.
 

paulobrito

Well-known member
To be fair, stealth is also another engineering challenge.
And you can't build a stealth Hypersonic - at that speed the heat alone turns your fighter very visible.
Ok, ok, you can build a stealth fighter that can go hypersonic - but during that time is not stealth at all.
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
Perhaps this will force our air command to remember that combined arms doctrine exists, and not every bird is a strike fighter.
A joint use aircraft is more viable on a contested battlefield then an attacker like the A10.
The A10 is great once Air dominance has been achieved but until then a joint use fighter is more viable.

Also one question that has been on my mind for a few days now. If a country builds a non stealthy combat jet that can travel at Mach 5 or greater. Can a Stealth Fighter even engage it in combat? I mean Sure the non stealth jet might not be able to get a target lock until very close range on an F-22 or F-35. But the Hypersonic jet would be faster than the entire payload of the F-22 and F-35. Makes me wonder if other Nations have been thinking about this too. And doing research into countering stealth in that way.
A human wouldn't really be able to do much maneuverability at those speeds. Remember a SR 71 blackbird wasn't a dog fighter for a reason.

It would have to be a drone, and the thing is it moves so fast you may not be able to use it to lock on to a moving target.
 

paulobrito

Well-known member
Even with air dominance, if the other side has decent-ish defenses - heck even MANPADS or SPAAGS can ruin the day of any A-10 pilot.
 

Doomsought

Well-known member
A joint use aircraft is more viable on a contested battlefield then an attacker like the A10.
The A10 is great once Air dominance has been achieved but until then a joint use fighter is more viable.
Combine arms doctrine means you should have a suitable supply of both, as well as other specializations.
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
Combine arms doctrine means you should have a suitable supply of both, as well as other specializations.
Well that is where the Army comes in with its Helicopters.
CAS aircraft very a lot.
The A10 is good for CAS in low intese areas. Where as multi again, benefit of being above the MANPADS ceiling.

The usefulness of the A10 is more of, oh they have no AD alive in large scale, and they have a unit convoy you can attack

A10 really isn't CAS until COIN.
 

paulobrito

Well-known member
Eh, yes and no.
We know they are good in air that has those. Look at 03 and Storm
Yes, I looked - and how many are so damaged that are scrapped after barely landing? Oh, wait...
For some reason, no replacement has planned, and the missions are moved to standard multirole planes - that can do the same (more or less) with PGMs from a safer distance.
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
Yes, I looked - and how many are so damaged that are scrapped after barely landing? Oh, wait...
For some reason, no replacement has planned, and the missions are moved to standard multirole planes - that can do the same (more or less) with PGMs from a safer distance.
PGMs are good and all but the closer they are to the ground they can often react better.
The A10 allows for gun runs and not just PGMs.
"Oh I'm out if PGMs and Air won't be back for like 10 minutes"
Shit I need air but they left.

That is about the main thing CAS helps wirh.
 

paulobrito

Well-known member
CAS - has in Close Air Support - is placing explosives near your forces, not flying near the enemy forces.
Until the advent of PGMs (in industrial quantity), yes, it is necessary to fly low and slow on enemy fire range, but today, no, nope. Heck, you can do most of the said job with drones, if the environment is permissive enough. If not, F-16, or even better Rafale, can do it from long ranges much safer. Not even talking of, in the near future, F-35, and other stealth platforms.
 

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