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Posted

This Romanian F-16 purchase is a very good news for Dallas area in this hard economical times. Go Texas!!!

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Posted
2 engines= bad for low manpower.

Maybe they will use blk 52 instead of blk 50 and re-engine the blk 25 with -229. They are some benefits to having several different engines. If major engine problem where to arise, it would not ground their entire F-16 fleet, only the ones with affected engine. More opportunities for different companies(specially if engine are assemble and maintain in their own country) and with that more companies can get involve in the project. It is more likely to have competitive pricing with more companies bidding for contracts. A hostile group toward Romanian government could not ground the F-16 fleet by attacking a specific suppliers of parts, etc.

http://www.aviationnews.eu/?p=3320

http://www.f-16.net/news_article2892.html

To whom it may concern,

I am an idiot, unfortunately for the world, I have a internet connection and a fondness for beer....apologies for that.

Thank you for you patience.

 

 

Many people don't want the truth, they want constant reassurance that whatever misconception/fallacies they believe in are true..

  • 8 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

That green/gray camo does not fit Gripen at all!

 

BTW where do these images come from?! They're based on Croatian MiG-21UMD called "Kockica" and std paintwork of Croatian Fishbeds (camo) but I believe in case of Gripen and NATO Croatia will adopt standard SAAB paintwork with lo-vis markings!

 

On the other hand, now with general worldwide crysis, resources of Croatian Fishbeds are prolonged up to 2012 which reads "no new fighters til 2011".

 

Our MOD decided to invite HuAF and PAF (Polish airforce) for the needs of airspace protection so those pics Kusch posted simply imply probability of seeing both Gripen and Falcon in the skies over Croatia pretty soon.

 

Of course, our pilots and MOD can study both airplanes and decide which is better for purchase in 2011...

Edited by Vekkinho

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Posted (edited)

Yeah, it's a "pay by hour" deal as can be seen in this article:

http://www.nacional.hr/clanak/20390/vlada-bi-unajmila-a-ne-kupila-lovce-f-16

 

It's in Croatian but I can translate the most important parts:

 

GOVERNMENT IS TO RENT, NOT BUY NEW JET FIGHTERS

 

Although prime minister Sanader made a promise to Americans to buy F-16 fighters, Croatian government is considering another option as this deal of 300 million US$ seems too expensive. So another option is twice cheaper and beside american figher jets other european jets are also taken into account.

 

Due to financial limitations, Croatian government is considering an option for replacement of aged MiG-21 fleet by the 2010 in a way of renting military jets in "pay by hour" manner. It would drastically reduce the amount of funds required to achive agreed flight hours for Croatian pilots. Pilots who would fly those rented jets would be trained in the country that rents those planes (i.e. Hungary or Poland (AFAIK) and planes would be maintained by Polish or Hungarian personnel).

 

Planes taken into account are Mirage 2000-5, JAS-39, F-16 and EF-2000 but differ in price. There was an option on MiG-29SMT, I have heard a rumor on Algerian Fulcrum SMT fleet landing in Croatia on they return to Russia but it was denied as unapproprate option for Croatian AF as these planes do not meet NATO requirement that was set as standard for CroAF.

 

Of course, those planes we would rent must be painted with Croatian markings so Mikoyan's pics probably mean something!

Edited by Vekkinho

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Posted

But I would think they would at least have low vis markings, like on the Mi-17 :dontgetit:

Never forget that World War III was not Cold for most of us.

Posted

Slovenia is also renting by hour Italian (I think) aircraft and pilots, so even though An-2 is a wonderful airplane, I think it would have some trouble against eurofighters ;)

Never forget that World War III was not Cold for most of us.

Posted
Slovenia is also renting by hour Italian (I think) aircraft and pilots, so even though An-2 is a wonderful airplane, I think it would have some trouble against eurofighters ;)

 

Slovenia is so small it would take 2 mins for Eurofighters to patrol it. They would actually have to slow down to 250kph, flaps down & airbrake (special feature) in order to have time to figure out and detect anything.

 

In the meantime An-2 would have already done few straffing runs and dropped a barrel filled with tar in order to produce a mass blackout effect in Slovenia.:D

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Posted
Slovenia is also renting by hour Italian (I think) aircraft and pilots,...
This means, Slovenia is paying to Italians for a service. I wonder what exactly those Italian airplanes do when "patrolling" over Slovenia?

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Posted

I don't think they actually do patrols. They're just paid to hop in when there's a need to intercept a non-responsive airliner and such. And given the Slovenia's size, any such airplane would be well out of its airspace before the interceptors arive :D

 

Nevertheless, it's an international obligation to have aircraft for controling your skies. And if you don't have your own - you need to rent. Doesn't matter if you need them or if you want them. So everyone is now finding solutions to bridge that gap before new planes can be bought. Serbia had those MiG-29s sitting around, so overhaul was cheapest solution. Croatia doesn't have any airplanes with airframes that can take another life extention, so renting might be a good short-term choice. It also has its downsides. You need to watch for the levels of your own maintenance capability. If it falls to low, you might have to build it from scratch once you decide to go back to ownership.

Never forget that World War III was not Cold for most of us.

Posted

Indeed, Slovenia pays by the hour too and every summer Italian Falcons from Ronchi dei Legionari (Monfalcone) like to practice with Croatian Fishbeds over Kvarner (over isles of Cres, Losinj, Krk, Rab, Unije). So that's when they overfly Slovenia, break a sound barrier and collect some "Pay by hour" money to cover fuel expenses for this practice...

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  • 3 weeks later...
Posted
Hopefully they will deploy some jets to Split. I know where the underground jet bunkers are at the airport :D

 

Here's few photos of it, underground tunnel is painted red and jet revetments (parking areas) in orange:

 

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2947516490089918257BjLbVk_ph.jpg

 

2385890570089918257EmWrZu_ph.jpg

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  • 1 month later...
Posted

I've heard that they may give up on them and concentrate on transport aviation.

Never forget that World War III was not Cold for most of us.

Posted

Yeah, we're not buying any fighters ATM but we were supposed to get 2 brand new Canadair CL-415 fire fighters for the '09 summer.

 

However, Canadair announced it's on hold caused by worldwide crisis so Croatian AF is about to issue some penalties to Canadair. So, if these two are not delivered by September 2009 there's gonna be a third one in March 2010!

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Posted

Yesterday evening a pair of Croatian MiG-21bis flew supersonic near capital city at an altitude of 12000m, sonic boom was heard in Zagreb again as we had something similar 2 months ago. It was raining with most of the day so population thought it was a thunder!

 

Planes were going thru a 250 flt.hrs overhaul in April and this was the test run!

 

:music_whistling:

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Posted

Hehe. Nice disguise :)

 

Why don't they do super sonic flights over water?

 

Btw, it was cool here yesterday too. Clouds were low, but a learjetish plane flew under them at low level, preparing to land in Belgrade :)

Never forget that World War III was not Cold for most of us.

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