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MiG 27 Fighter Bomber Will Have New Engines General director of the Salyut Moscow Machine Building Production Plant Yury Eliseev has announced at the Farnborough Airshow in Great Britain that a new engine will be used in modernized MiG 27 fighter bombers, the main aircraft of the Indian Air Force. The new engine, the AL-31F, will be 200 kg. lighter than the R-29B-300 used previously, and have one metric ton more propulsion (12,300 kg./sec.) than its predecessor. It will also use 15 percent less fuel. The Indian Air Force has 150 Mi G27 Bahadur models and will modernize 60 of...

The Russian air force is buying 24 new Su-34 fighter bombers. This is the latest variant of the Su-27. The Su-34 is somewhat like the American F-15E, a high performance fighter modified to act as a very effective bomber. Aside from it's similarity to the F-15E, the Su-34 has one very distinguishing characteristic. The cockpit for the two man crew not only allows for tandem (side-by-side) seating, but is spacious enough for the pilots to stand up and, standing behind their seats, stretch a bit. There is also a toilet and cooking facilities back there as well. The cockpit itself...