Chavez Says He May Send US-Made Fighter Jets to Cuba, China

nice... so iran has cracked the american missile codes? why doesnt Iran just spend 5 years building a fighter plane LIKE the tomcat but with minor to major upgrade/redesign and use Iranian missile codes instead? i mean, theres about 50 of them around, and they can be all taken apart and building a reverse engineered carbon copied with upgrades is simple and that can provide something for a 4th generation fighter... i think they can pull it off

Chairman Hu said:

nice... so iran has cracked the american missile codes? why doesnt Iran just spend 5 years building a fighter plane LIKE the tomcat but with minor to major upgrade/redesign and use Iranian missile codes instead? i mean, theres about 50 of them around, and they can be all taken apart and building a reverse engineered carbon copied with upgrades is simple and that can provide something for a 4th generation fighter... i think they can pull it off

Click to expand...

revers engineering a plane as complicated as the tomcat is not as simple as you say...its very complex and time consuming. iran plans to eventually retire its tomcats anyways.

Id assume that they already are going to use the best bits out of the Tomcat on that new fighter they are working on anyway.. They wouldnt use the whole thing, they have not got any use for a fighter as large as the Tomcat that they could only produce in small amounts.

As for the F-16's, of course the Chinese have use for them. Im sure you guys have heard of the U.S. Navy Top Gun advanced combat manouvering course.

China would be able to use the F-16's to form an agressor squadron or two, therefore giving their elite pilots an opportunity to train up on the same aircraft that their adversaries would be using.

This is an expensive operation but the results have shown themselves worthwile in the U.S. version so i see no reason why they would have any issues themselves.

As well as this they could invite other pilots from friendly countries such as Iran, North Korea and Pakistan (although Pakistan already has F-16's) and any other country in order to give them some first rate training against U.S. fighters.

I am pretty sure that Venezula F-16 are Updated F-16A/B. The F-16s have been updated to accomodate the AIM-9L Sidewinder missile. Standard armament for air support missions is 6x Mk.82 or 2x Mk.84, 4 AIM-9L Sidewinder and one centerline drop tank. CBU's and rockets are also available in the FAV inventory. I also heard that they updated them with percision guided weapons, possibily from the Isrealies.

China can use these F-16s as Training aircraft, replace some early version of the J-7/J-8 with it, and they can also study the F-16.

And about the Oil from Venezula. Canada gets their oil from themselve. It produces 3.3 million barrels per day and only use 2.2 million barrels per day. The Americans get it from the Saudis.

EternalVigil said:

No offense guys but the primative block that the troublemaker chavez has is is junk in US air force standards. F-16 is being phased out here for the JSF anyhow.

Click to expand...

What about the F-18 for the Navy ? JSF can replace that too ?
Hows a Mig-29C compare to a Super hornet ??

Su-27 Pilot said:

What about the F-18 for the Navy ? JSF can replace that too ?
Hows a Mig-29C compare to a Super hornet ??

Click to expand...

dont compare em. the mig-29c hasnt seen naval service yet. on pare its equal or about equal, but lets not discuss it yet untill india begins using its mig-29cs

Su-27 Pilot said:

What about the F-18 for the Navy ? JSF can replace that too ?
Hows a Mig-29C compare to a Super hornet ??

Click to expand...

depends on the avionics on each plane. apg-79 would beat the radar on mig-29m

buying more oil from Canada? What the hell is that guy smoking?

ever heard of spare capacity? The US is very much dependent on oil, and even a 10% shortage relative to today's supply will halt any moment out of the slight recession.

like some of you guys have said, i doubt china would take the f16's but i suppose if they do, it would be better then some of the old mig 21's they are still running

Well There isent any realistic reason for China to operate few F-16. They would only suffer from same proplems that forces Venezuela to consider their sale. Hower, I wouldnt be so arrogant and declare that China dont need them as technology demonstrators, cos they are old block version. They still are potent four generation fighters and Lot could be learned from them. Thought some of Chinese possible opponent operates newer models of F-16, they still share some of the key elements of their follow ups and could be used to simulate Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese air element in similar manner that NATO has used german MiG-29s. Their service life wouldnt be long hower, couse we cannot just assume that Pakistan would defy US so stubidly by retransfering some of their own F-16 components to china. Also, it would be economically too expensive to reserve engineer totally differnt technology to few dozen aircrafts.

Thougth there is also the possipiliy to try to reverse engineer some of their technology into new chinese technology, like the F-100 engine and radar system.