Posted on 09/13/2011 10:30:48 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Leaked Sea Gripen briefing emerges in India
By Greg Waldron on September 14, 2011
India defence blog Livefist has published a briefing about the proposed naval variant of Saab's Gripen fighter. The idea of a Sea Gripen is nothing new. In late May the company announced that it would set up a design centre for the proposed aircraft in the UK.
As for the presentation itself, page five caught my eye, as it shows the world's carrier fleets. Interesting to see that Saab classifies Australia's two Canberra assault ships as carriers, though Australia has consistently said that the two flat tops will operate only helicopters. Also, were all of Japan's 32 carriers de-commissioned? Could the battle of Midway be regarded as a four-ship de-commissioning? And didn't the US have a few catastrophic de-commissionings as well?
And while I'm a fan of naval aviation, I don't know anything about Germany's three aircraft carriers - need to hop onto Wikipedia. And what are statistics about all these old aircraft carriers doing in a presentation about 21st century carrier aviation?
Back to the aircraft itself...interesting to see an illustration of the Gripen's ability to operate from roads, requiring an effective runway of just 9x600m, and that Saab is looking at thrust vectoring, which would help with STOBAR launches.
ping
Me thinks you have to read the column that lists the “In Service” number of ships and not the historical total number. It’s pretty clear in the tabulation.
Hey leave him alone
Any post that references the decommissioning of the Japanese flat tops is a great post!
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Click on pic for past Navair pings. Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist. The only requirement for inclusion in the Navair Pinglist is an interest in Naval Aviation. This is a medium to low volume pinglist.
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