Re: New interceptors for the Argentine Air Force?
I hope I wasn’t being delusional in my assessment above (however I must agree that South American forums do tend to be infantile in their belief of actual cost of acquisition and maintenance of aircraft). I did mention that the best option was the JF-17. My preference is the Su-27.
Is an Su-27 purchase feasible: Yes, even an increase in defence spending of 2% could more than cover the purchase and maintenance for these aircraft.
Is an Su-27 purchase probable: No. Although this aircraft has the endurance and range to cover the vast territory of Argentine. As you mentioned the President has a chock hold on the military and will not provide them with proper equipment. Let along monies to maintain it.
In my list above I mention that the JF-17 comes close to match the F-16 in performance and would be much more economical to operate. Additionally the aircraft (by nature of it being new) will also have the additional advantage of less down time and a longer life than the F-16MLU operated by Chile.
If the current government, and preceding ones, produce sufficiently interesting numbers of these aircraft Argentine could then retire two aircraft types (Mirages and A-4s) and simplify maintenance and logistics.
Delusional? I didn't mean deliberate offence, pls don't take it that way.
That said, you're right that Su-27 is not probable. Far more than that:
A. ARG is a rather big country geographically. How many Su-27 you need to cover that? Can ARG afford it? Can ARG want and afford all the associated ammos/missiles that go with Su-27? Can Su-27 go with third-party missiles? Will Russia give the open source code of Su-27 to ARG because of this small ticket purchase? etc. all bugger question marks…
B. How many hours per year ARG airforce could afford to train with Su-27?
C. Su-27 (from Russia) is notoriously bad at electronics - one of the major reasons China built J-11B. Could it satisfy ARG? A third party ad hoc electronics (e.g. from Israel) will take the final bill to another level, mind you.
D. Apart from Su-27, will ARG buy another fighter? If yes (since # of Su-27 would be small), then could ARG afford 2 separate logistics, particularly the after-sale logistics quality of Russian gears being almost a legend? NOT.
E. is Su-27 in the same league as EF Typhoon? Obviously no, then what do you need Su-27 for? Since you don’t need it to fight the UK, what Su-27 can do that a far larger number (due to the same amount of investment) of JF-17 couldn’t, if not much better and far more efficient? For one, the electronics of JF-17 Block I (from mid-90s and Y2K) are already almost 2 generations ahead of 80’s Su-27, let alone the incoming Block II.
F. Will Russia give Su-27 tech transfer to ARG? And how much of that?
G how much will the future upgrade/s of Su-27 cost? Can ARG airforce afford it?
…
The same logic applies to Mig 29, Mig35, Su-30 and its derivatives.
The hardware, software, logistics, pilot experiences/training, the rest of air defence system/network, and even the doctrine of ARG ariforce are about still at era of 80’s. The similar goes to most of the related Argentine industrial sectors to a large extent. You need 1 thing to take you to the door of 21st century at the best quality/price ratio you can afford, and NOW.
This thing is JF-17 – more or less a F-16 Block30 equivalent.
JF-17 is a pure luck for ARG, think about it, if PAK/INDO conflicts didn’t exist, there would be no JF-17. PAK situation makes it easier for ARG, as all ARG airforce has to do is to copy/paste what PAK airforce did. If PAK can afford it and use it effectively and defensively against far bigger Indian Airforce, why ARG can’t do it against merely 4 EF Typhoon?
Once AFTER stepping into 21st century, ARG airforce can plan whatever fancy stuff they like, being 4+ or 4++ or 5th gen, in the future (at least 1 decade ahead), not BEFORE it.
Remember that Argentina is NOT looking for a fighter, but looking for a whole basket of objectives listed in my previous post. Su-27 or Mig 29 or far worse options like Kfir, F-1, whatever, only gives you a fighter, while JF-17 enables you to achieve a full basket of both strategic and tactic objectives. In this sense, JF-17 is better than Rafale or even F-35, is it not?
The answer is so obvious.
At the end of the day, it has to do with Argentina’s deep rooted mentality of “big bad dirty made-in-China”. By and large, Argentine forumers I dealt with think J-10 is just a copy of Israeli Lavi and JF-17 is no more than an upgrade of mig21, and Russian or Israeli electronics are far better than Chinese ones…
Russian or Israeli electronics?
Name 1 electronics company from Russia or Israel that is within top 50 in the world? Zero. Sorry, but financially weak Russia is no Soviet at its 80’s, and Israel is mainly a middleman selling 2nd and 3rd hand re-branded US electronics with their in-house ad hoc consultants.
But China has some of the biggest and the brightest incoming stars such as homegrown Huawei, ZTE, Levono, etc, apart from the biggest electronics manufacturing centre in the world. Actually British Chancellor George Osborne is visiting Huawei’s global headquarter today in Shenzhen, China (Google it!) , hoping for its further technology investment in the UK.
