Brazil eyes Russia's 'Super Flanker' fighter

Reuters via Yahoo ^ | Axel Bugge

[NormsRevenge]

The Competition in the 21st Century ?

[Fish out of Water]

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[bybybill]

Why does Brazil need these planes and are the Super Flankers a better aircraft than our F-16?

[Redcrosse]

Sounds like they are cheaper. Russia grasps the concept of the free market.

[Gladwin]

Also, Russian equipment requires less maintenance and can take off from unimproved runways. That might be appealing in a large third world country like Brazil. They used to have worse avionics, although I don't know if that is still true.

[TADSLOS]

Why does Brazil need these planes and are the Super Flankers a better aircraft than our F-16?

Shark Patrol and keeping the rain forest indigs at bay. Reports are that it is more maneuverable than both the F-16 and F-15.

[Warren]

Yes, Russian Avionics do not match ours. Probably wouldn't matter that much to Brazil
as although not as advanced as ours, they are much better than anything they will likely
encounter in South America. The ability to land at less than perfect runways is very important.

[ScreamingFist]

"Why does Brazil need these planes and are the Super Flankers a better aircraft than our F-16?"

The SU-35 is designed to be an air superiority fighter, much like the F-15. The F-16 is a small fighter that is as effective as a air-to-ground bomber as it is an air-to-air fighter. Comparing the two is difficult. In close, the F-16 would eat this boat alive, but the SU-35 is designed to excel in dogfights at medium to long range. The supercruising F-22 is the aircraft designed specifically to deal with aircraft at medium and long ranges, but at 700 million a copy, I don't think Brazil wants any.

[NormsRevenge]

Nope. 700 million for 1 aircraft :-) The Brazilians are good at math ... at least

[Paul Ross]

Yup, and under $30 million per unit for the 24 plane order, that does appear to be a very competitive bid. What price is the F-16 coming in at nowadays?

[NormsRevenge]

That may be the strange part here as the F-16 has sold for anywhere from 22-35 million over the last couple of years depending on fleecibility of the buyer and the competition ... The F-22 will go for 200 million a shot not 700 million quite but still a chunk of change for a single aircraft

The Project On Government Oversight

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[Delbert]

why are they painted camo, when they dont fly through the forests?

[GBA]

Probably better in all areas than the F-16 except avionics. Same for the F-15. Russian aerodynamicists are very talented! The MiG-29 was a fairly even match for the F-16 (though maybe not the earlier F-16A)and that was before MiG used a fly-by-wire control system. The Su-27 and Su-35 are a couple of good reasons to have the F-22.

[John H K]

Also, Russian equipment requires less maintenance

As a generic statement, the above is a myth.

It's been by and large QUITE true of small arms, such as the AK-47 vs. the M-16, etc., and people have wrongly extended it to all Russian equipment.

Many Russian aircraft and Russian tanks actually are harder to maintain and require more maintenance than American equipment; same is true of their ships and submarines

As one example, Russian tanks have automatic loaders and one less crewman than US tanks (our tanks have their guns loaded by hand.) The autoloaders are a big maintanance headache, and also dangerous; they've amputated the arms of a fair number of tankers.

[ScreamingFist]

The F-22 will go for 200 million a shot not 700 million quite but still a chunk of change for a single aircraft"

Your numbers are more accurate, thanks for the correction; BUT Mr. Fist says "expect to see that price at least double"

"The F-22 is already the Pentagon's most expensive weapons project - at least until the Joint Strike Fighter begins production in another nine years of a planned 3,000 planes. This anticipated new cost overrun in the F-22 development phase pushes the total anticipated program cost to nearly $63 billion - and counting - with only the first six of 339 planes paid for to date." cdi.org

[fogarty]

Sounds like they are cheaper. Russia grasps the concept of the free market.

Exactly. And Brazil does too.

[ScreamingFist]

"The MiG-29 was a fairly even match for the F-16 (though maybe not the earlier F-16A)and that was before MiG used a fly-by-wire control system."

Ahhh, someone that knows their F-16's! :) The early "A" models were so light and agile it was a wonder to behold. One of my all time "lifes greatest moments" was watching Neil Anderson do his Paris Airshow routine, it was freekin unbelievable! I have yet to ever see any other aircraft (and yes, I've seen the Flanker and their fancy, high AOA cobra manuevers. Anderson could have pulled a 360 degree 9 G turn around that aircraft by the time the russian pilot finally got the nose back down) even come close. Does anyone know what the SU-27/35 are G limited at?

[NormsRevenge]

No problem, either way, we're talking serious dinaro ... The thought that a B1B bomber is worth almost 300 million a pop and the F-22 will eclipse that.. Ouch

B-1B Lancer Bomber

[VOA]

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