AislepathLight From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 562 posts, RR: 0 Posted (6 years 10 months 1 week 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 1807 times:
Quoting RIA Novosti: 12/07/2006 15:02 ROSTOV-ON-DON, July 12 - Russia's Defense Ministry is planning to purchase 67 Mi-28N Night Hunter attack helicopters in the next few years, the defense minister said Wednesday.
"The Mi-28N's specifications and combat characteristics are equal to those of three Mi-24 Hind attack helicopters, which are currently the mainstay of Russia's helicopter fleet," Sergei Ivanov said.
He said the Defense Ministry would buy seven Night Hunters by the end of the year.
He also said the multi-role all-weather combat Ka-52 Alligator helicopter, a twin-seat derivative of the attack Ka-50, would only be used in special missions by the Armed Forces' Main Intelligence Directorate, including in anti-terrorist operations.
I thought that the they had plenty of Hinds in storage, and were happy with that. The question that I have is where do they get money for a project like this, when the rest of their airforce falls apart? The TU160s are not flying and TU22Ms are getting old. Wouldn't you think that I would make more sense to at least to fix up some of the heavy bomber force? KA50s are great, don't get me wrong, but I would rather see a force that the Russians could do something with. Are these gonna help solve the problems in either the Middle East or with North Korea? Not really.
"We have slain a large dragon, but we now live in a jungle filled with a bewildering variety of poisonous snakes."
FVTu134 From Russia, joined Aug 2005, 168 posts, RR: 1 Reply 6, posted (6 years 10 months 1 week 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 1586 times:
Quoting AislepathLight (Thread starter): I thought that the they had plenty of Hinds in storage, and were happy with that. The question that I have is where do they get money for a project like this, when the rest of their airforce falls apart? The TU160s are not flying and TU22Ms are getting old. Wouldn't you think that I would make more sense to at least to fix up some of the heavy bomber force? KA50s are great, don't get me wrong, but I would rather see a force that the Russians could do something with. Are these gonna help solve the problems in either the Middle East or with North Korea? Not really.
I don't know where you got that information. First of all with regards to your money question, Russia is currently the second larges oil exporter in the world, has the largest oil reserves (although some of them are in "difficult" places) and economy is growing at just under 10% per year.
Recent article (and message thread about it on a.net) in Air Force magazine showed about a dozen 160's operational and I'm sure they'll take any other they can get their hands on along with a few more which will be assembled from spares and unfinished airframes. The rest are Bears. I'm not sure if any Blinders are still active but I would imagine that defence spending will not go down, especially for the strategic force at Engels. (close to the Southern Russian town of Saratov). Local tv channels quite often show reports or documentaries showing TU-160's and TU-95's. Very interesting.
With regards to your question about problems in Middle-East and North Korea.... With which country does Russia have a problem? Those helicopter operations, as mentioned in the article are mostly used for internal COIN and COTO tasks.
FVTu134
who decided that a Horizon should be HORIZONtal???
Lumberton From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 4708 posts, RR: 21 Reply 7, posted (6 years 10 months 1 week 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 1551 times:
Sovietjet From Bulgaria, joined Mar 2003, 2339 posts, RR: 14 Reply 8, posted (6 years 10 months 1 week 4 hours ago) and read 1488 times:
Quoting FVTu134 (Reply 6): I'm not sure if any Blinders are still active but I would imagine that defence spending will not go down, especially for the strategic force at Engels.
Blinders were retired in the beginning of the 1990s. We're talking about Tu-22Ms aka Backfire. Plenty of those flying and not just in Engels. Several airbases operate them.
As far as the helicopters. Russia has many Hinds but remember that the Mi-24 is getting old. It needs to be modernised with new comms equipment and needs an avionics upgrade for better aiming and night missions. The Mi-28Ns will partially solve this.
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