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March 2011 Archives

This blog is on vacation

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 31, 2011 1:26 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
It's Final Four weekend and I'm a University of Kentucky fan, so, with apologies to non-Americans who have no idea what I'm talking about, this can only mean one thing: I'm on vacation!

(Let the record show I booked this trip home two months ago in anticipation of a Final Four berth, and I was right!)

I'll be back in the office after Wednesday, 6 April.

VIDEOS: French air force over Libya

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 30, 2011 12:54 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
Who has better filmmakers than the French Air Force? Nobody. That's who. (h/t G2 Solutions).


Libye : ravitaillements en vol by ministeredeladefense


Catapultages pour la Libye à bord du... by ministeredeladefense

Why does DSCA make aircraft prices so confusing?

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 29, 2011 5:02 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)


The Indian press says New Delhi is holding up a blockbuster deal for 10 Boeing C-17s. There's apparently some concerns about the bill, which the US Defense Security and Cooperation Agency (DSCA) estimates could cost as much as $5.8 billion. Ouch! That's worth as much as $580 million per aircraft.

This raises one of my frequent gripes about DSCA's mandatory notifications to Congress. In short, they make no sense.

According to DSCA, the same aircraft with nearly identical equipment and extra features will result in a wild range of costs, depending on which country is buying. It's not unreasonable for some countries to think they're getting a bad deal if all they're reading are the DSCA notifications.

Consider four recent sales announcements by the DSCA. If you go by these numbers, Australia is buying its latest C-17 ($300 million) for nearly half the price of India's deal ($580 million each) despite ordering superior equipment, such as the large aircraft infrared countermeasures system (LAIRCM). Similarly, NATO is buying two C-17s for nearly the same price ($700 million) that Kuwait is buying only one ($693 million).  

US Navy's wish-list for new UAV spy-bomber

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 28, 2011 8:10 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)


It may need in-flight refueling to avoid disrupting flight deck operations. It will be controlled by the aircraft carrier within the ship's line of sight, but steered from land-based control centers on long-range flights. It will be a persistent surveillance asset first and a long-range bomber second. Humans, not computers, will always control when it releases weapons.

Those are my take-aways from the US Navy's solicitation released earlier today for the unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike (UCLASS) program. The navy wants to deploy its new spy-bomber in 2018. (By the way, I know some of you don't like me calling it a "spy plane", but get over it. It's easier than saying "intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance" and says fairly close to the same thing!)

The early field of candidates for UCLASS include:

  • Sea Avenger by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc
  • X-47B by Northrop Grumman

As well as possible variations on previous unmanned aircraft systems, including:


Flightglobal presents a guide to airborne imaging

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 25, 2011 6:40 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
Few technologies have been more influential in military operations over the past decade as the gyro-stabilized TV camera. It's rare these days to find any military aircraft worth mentioning that lacks an electro-optical/infrared imaging payload. Flightglobal's Insight team and aviation correspondent Caitlin Harrington, in association with Raytheon, have published a guide to this important field called "Airborne Imaging 2011". It's free to download here. 

Airborne Imaging 2011 (cover).jpg

GE and Rolls follow Schwartz's advice on F136

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 25, 2011 11:34 AM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
To say General Electric and Rolls-Royce are not happy about yesterday's stop-work order on F136 is like saying Libyan air force pilots are a little concerned these days about staying current on their flying proficiency.

Even as they are self-funding the F136 to keep the program alive, GE and Rolls are fighting the 90-day stop-work order with every bit of their political clout.

But the joint venture trying to supply the alternate engine for the F-35 are actually following the advice of Gen Norton Schwartz, who advised the program to pay a share of the $1.9 billion-to-go development bill if they want to keep the F136 alive.

See my video recording from Schwartz's press conference at the National Press Club on October 12.

My bill from the US Air Force: $87,432.00

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 24, 2011 12:58 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
"Dear Mr. Trimble," the recent correspondence, with Department of the Air force letterhead on top, begins.

"This letter is in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request dated 27 February 2011," the letter continued, promisingly. "As of the date of this letter, without a waiver, the total estimated processing cost for your request as written is $87,432.00 for reproduction of releasable documents, as well as labor hours."

Hmm. This could be a hard one to slip through on expenses.

I submit the contents of this letter into the public domain to reveal the alleged costs of official transparency.

In the USA, the FOIA process allows any person to request official documents, which of course are first scrubbed for proprietary and classified information. There is a cost of providing such information to the public. In my case, that cost is apparently $87,432.00.

You may be wondering what on earth I asked for that costs so much. I can share this with you because my request is not related to any ongoing news investigation. I was simply curious after learning that final reports by the Fleet Viability Board are available if you submit a FOIA request, so I asked for all of them. I imagined that somewhere a clerk would pick up a stack of reports gathering dust on a shelf, walk over to a photocopy machine, press a button, and slide the result into an envelope.

I was not aware that there are 30 such reports, each containing about 800 pages! Although I'm sure most of these documents have already been requested by others through FOIA, each of those pages apparently still needs to be reviewed to avoid releasing classified or proprietary information.

I should also note that I would not actually be charged $87,432.00. As a member of the news media, I qualify for a discounted rate for receiving the same information, which amounts to $1,197.00 -- still a bit much for our expense budget!

I have duly clarified my original request. This time I'm asking for the executive summary and table of contents for two reports. I'll let let you know what happens.

Why the West dodged a Russian bullet over Libya

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 22, 2011 12:47 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
To challenge the no-fly-zone imposed by a Western-led coalition, the Libyan Air Force has not launched a newly-acquired fleet of state-of-the-art four Sukhoi Su-30s and 12-15 Su-35s. It has not activated an integrated network of recently-delivered S-300 air defense missiles. And Muammar Gaddafi's loyalist force have not overwhelmed the rebellion with several dozen T-90 main battle tanks.

Sometimes it's worth considering the close-calls of history, and a major arms deal between Russia and Libya in 2008 may be one of them.

Slightly less than three years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at Tripoli's only five-star hotel, the Corinthia Baab Afriqiya, to meet with Gaddafi. Putin promptly forgave $4.5 billion of Libya's Soviet-era debt in return for Libya's commitment to buy a $1.8 billion arms package, which included all of the weapon systems listed in the first paragraph above.

For reasons lost (at the moment) to history, the deal apparently was never finalized. The only contract signed by Libya for new military aircraft since Putin's meeting in Tripoli involved six Yakovlev Yak-130 jet trainers, and they're not scheduled for delivery until later this year or next.

Why no F-22s over Libya?

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 20, 2011 9:42 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)

Photo: US Air Force
In the attacks on Libya since 19 March, the US Air Force says as of about 1pm EDT today it has contributed three Northrop Grumman B-2s, four Boeing F-15Es and eight Lockheed Martin F-16CJs.

Where are the F-22s?

It's a fair question to ask since Gen Norton Schwartz, USAF chief of staff, told Congress on 17 March that he expected the F-22s to be employed in the early days of what was then a hypothetical operation.

There may be several reasons for the no-show by the world's most expensive fighter, which has yet to be employed in anger despite entering service six years ago.

It's possible that Schwartz was bluffing or simply trying to appease his questioner, who in this case happened to be Sen Saxby Chambliss, an F-22 champion from Georgia.

Or it's possible that the old adage to not bring a knife to a gun fight works in reverse. As in, don't bring an F-22 to a fight when you have B-2s, F-15s, F-16s, Tomahawks and a host of coalition aircraft, and they seem to be doing the job just fine.

It's also possible that the Libya war comes a year too early for the Raptor. True, the F-22 fleet can drop two joint direct attack munitions or eight small diameter bombs. However, six years after declaring initial operational capability, the F-22 is still waiting for a radar that picks up targets on the ground. The air-to-ground mode for the Northrop Grumman APG-77 radar is nearing the end of a long testing phase, and retrofits for the fleet should start at the end of this year. Until then, the F-22's primary targeting sensor is effectively blind to ground targets after the aircraft takes off.

The F-22's absence in the first combat operation launched after IOC is a question the air force needs to answer, or some people undoubtedly will start complaining about the F-22 program's $62 billion price tag -- again.

A history of Predator from the ultimate insider

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 17, 2011 3:19 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)

On 3 March, the US Air Force accepted the last MQ-1B Predator (shown above) from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., closing the book on a paradigm-breaking 16-year run.

Frank Pace was one of the original employees of Abe Karem's Leading Systems, which designed Amber for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the early 1980s. The Amber was modified to become the GNAT 750, which was modified to become the Predator after Leading Systems went bankrupt and its assets were acquired by Neil Blue's General Atomics.

Now Pace is president of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI), the maker of the air force's Predator, the army's Gray Eagle, the more powerful Reaper and the jet-powered Avenger.

But Pace kindly spent about 30 minutes with me earlier this week recalling the Predator's pioneering emergence in the 1990s as the unmanned (sorry, remotely piloted - ahem) aircraft that changed ... well, everything. Pace spoke candidly of the circumstances that led to Leading Systems' bankruptcy, the key challenges overcome during the Predator's breakthrough deployment to Bosnia in 1995 and what it takes to introduce an innovative product in the military aircraft industry (Pace's tip: Whatever you do, don't listen to the customer!)
Continue reading A history of Predator from the ultimate insider.

Why the KC-46A is like Heinz ketchup

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 16, 2011 12:38 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
Do good things really come to those who wait?

In terms of the KC-X acquisition process, Defense analyst James Hasik writes that the answer is a qualified "yes". Eight years later, Boeing's proposed offer in 2010 beat the price tag on the infamous 2002 lease deal by about $16 million per aircraft, he writes. But he cautions that the true costs of the eight-year delay (2003-2011) have yet to be calculated

"I might hold my comments under some guard until the last KC-135R lands on its final flight. The accident rate could conceivably still spike, leading us all to wring out hands about the tragedy of the delay. But barring that, this simple serial incompetence may have played out usefully. The wait may have saved the US government a billion dollars or so, and today, it needs every billion it can find."

China's Pterodactyl UAS makes movie debut

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 15, 2011 10:55 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
It's blurry and glare-y, but this undated video posted last week on YouTube is worth a look. It offers a remarkably detailed perspective of the AVIC Pterodactyl unmanned aircraft system unveiled only four months ago. The video shows the Pterodactyl has already dropped guided bombs and fired missiles. There's also a few glimpses inside the Pterodactyl's ground control station and operations center.

Top 10 list of F-35B flaws and fixes

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 15, 2011 1:20 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)

Do not accuse the F-35 team for a lack of transparency. On the contrary, in recent interviews, Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney have identified at least eight things wrong with the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B, which I have covered here and, more recently, here.

In the past several days, events have supplied two more open questions -- affordability and power generation. A couple of these issues, such as wing roll-off and generators, apply also to the conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) F-35A.

As I explained in my most recent article, these represent both the threats and the keys to the F-35B's survival. The flaws have created the threat in the form of the F-35B's two-year probation status by the US Department of Defense, which was timed only a few weeks after the Royal Navy dropped out of the program. But the key for the F-35B's survival will depend on how well Lockheed's proposed fixes solve the problems.

It's still very early in the flight test phase, of course, so Rumsfeld's infamous "unknown-unknowns" are also still out there. A possible example are concerns about the F-35B's power and thermal management systems. In his farewell interview with Flight International, former chief test pilot Jon Beesley identified thermal management as a key concern heading into tests this summer with mission systems aircraft, which includes the STOVL BF-4. But that isn't officially a problem yet, so it's not on this list.

In no particular order, this blog's current list for the top 10 list of F-35B problems and solutions are on the jump:
Continue reading Top 10 list of F-35B flaws and fixes.

Earthquake devastates Japan F-2 sqd

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 13, 2011 1:56 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)

Photo of F-2A courtesy US Air Force

The 18 Mitsubishi F-2Bs of 21st Fighter Sqd at Matsushima AB in northeast Japan appear to be heavily damaged or destroyed by the earthquake-triggered tsunami on 11 March.

In an English-language report, the Kyodo news agency says the coastal Matsushima runway was flooded, damaging all 18 F-2B's "possibly permanently". News photos show that the flood washed one F-2B off the runway, coming to rest with its nose partially inside the window of an office building.

It's not clear what happened to the base's personnel, but an English translation of a Japanese-language report seems to indicate that most of the base's workers were on vacation on the day of the earthquake.

Japan is still coming to grips with the massive damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami, with a death toll rising to perhaps 10,000 and a potential nuclear crisis still feared.

Once the humanitarian response transitions into the recovery and rebuilding phase, the Japan self defense forces may have to cope with the loss of an entire training squadron.

What about an Arab-led no-fly-zone over Libya?

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 11, 2011 7:53 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
While the US and European Union hem and haw over launching a no-fly zone over Libya, the Dubai-based Institute for Near East & Gulf Military Analysis (INEGMA) has proposed a possibly useful alternate solution: let the Arabs do it.

Riad Kahwaji, chief executive of INEGMA, quotes retired United Arab Emirates air force chief Maj Gen Khaled Al-Bu Ainnain:

"The UAE Air Force can deploy couple of squadrons - one F-16 Block 60 and another Mirage 2000-9 - the Saudi Air Force can deploy a couple of F-15S squadrons and Egypt a couple of F-16 squadrons out of Mersi Matrouh Air Base in western Egypt," Al-Bu Ainnain said. "This would provide 120 fighters and attack aircrafts that would be backed with airborne early warning planes like Egyptian E-2C Hawkeye or Saudi AWACS, some unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for reconnaissance, and air-refueling tankers from Saudi Arabia and couple of Egyptian or UAE helicopter squadrons composed of Apache Longbow gunships, Blackhawks and Chinook helicopters, for search and rescue missions."

Crews and troops needed for the operation could be quickly airlifted to western Egypt, and even Algeria, within hours using a large fleet of UAE and Egyptian C-130 and Qatari C-17 transporters.
You know something: He's got a point! The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have been loading up on the world's most advanced weapons for some time, with the ambition of becoming the region's answer to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Maybe this is the perfect opportunity for the GCC to flex its muscle?

Another scary thought about what China's J-20 means

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 11, 2011 1:08 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)


First, some good news: The Global Times quoted a senior Chinese air force officer last week saying the Chengdu J-20 is still a research project and it's "difficult to say" when the theorized stealth interceptor would be ready for combat.

Not-so-good news: The RAND think-tank yesterday published an analysis concluding the J-20 exposes the fundamental problem that civilian control of the Chinese military is "under-institutionalized".

The RAND monograph is based on a widely-reported "senior [US] defense official's" observation that China's paramount civilian leader Hu Jintao was clueless about the J-20 in a meeting with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on 11 January, which happened -- by coincidence or design -- to be only a few hours after the J-20 achieved first flight.

Was Hu just playing dumb (it wouldn't be the first time I've heard about a civilian official pretending ignorance of a quasi-secret military program), or did he really not know about a key and heavily -- albeit unofficially -- publicized milestone for one of the most sophisticated demonstrations of China's military and industrial power?  

Says RAND's Andrew Scobell: "Analysis of Chinese handling of the J-20 test flight raises serious doubts about Beijing's capacity to manage successfully its ascendance as a great power and raises a serious question as to whether a civil-military 'gap' exists in China's peaceful rise."

How to get 'Rafale', 'bribe', 'India' and 'prostitute' in one headline

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 10, 2011 8:54 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
Aero India is nearly a month in the past, but the semi-annual roar-over-Bangalore is back in the headlines. The India Today newsmagazine reported on Tuesday:

The Air Force has set up a court of inquiry against a wing commander for taking bribe from foreign aviation manufacturing companies to facilitate prominent static display of their aircraft during the recently concluded Aero-India 2011 exposition.

Wing Commander A.K. Thakur was caught accepting bribe from Dassault, France, for helping them display their aircraft prominently during the four-day held in Bangalore in mid-February.

The French company had informed the authorities when Thakur made the offer to them in exchange of an amount of Rs 20,000. On receiving the complaint, the defence exhibition organisation laid a trap and caught the wing commander red-handed.

Meanwhile, the Deccan Herald reports that 'Honey Traps' also may have been involved. That usually involves extortion, but their description makes it sound more like simple bribery-by-prostitute. 

What has shocked the IAF community in Bangalore and the MoD is allegations that European women were employed to "soften up" officers who were involved with making arrangements for Aero India 2011.

A photograph of an Air Marshall in the company of a European woman believed to be a commercial sex worker has been found and which, along with a separate report, has been sent to the MoD in South Block, New Delhi.

It is clear, in any case, that bribery didn't give any of the MMRCA bidders an upper-hand along the static line. This pan over the static line from Flightglobal's video team shows the organizers filed the fighters in a neat line. 


US Marine Corps to become 2nd F-35C customer

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 9, 2011 2:03 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
CF1 painted.jpgI'm back on the defense beat after a brief interlude covering the commercial-oriented Heli-Expo convention in Orlando this week. Amazing what you miss if you turn your head for two days.

For example, the US Marine Corps, which previously seemed devoted solely to the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B variant, will soon buy some F-35C carrier varaints. Here's my transcript of the exchange yesterday between Sen Joe Lieberman, of Connecticut, and Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and commandant of the Marine Corps Gen James Amos.

Lieberman: I noted in the statement you made in your prepared testimony that the F-35C of the Joint Strike Fighter will be procured for both the navy and the marine corps. I think it's been the general understanding that the Marine Corps would want to see produced and would procure a pure F-35B STOVL fleet variant of the F-35 and that in fact is the plan that is reflecte in the curret future years defense program. Did I read this correctly in your prepared statement and could you speak therefore to the future mix if that is the correct interpration of the F-35B and F-35C in the Marine Corps inventory?

Mabus: Yes, sir. It has always been true that the F-35B was solely a Marine aircraft. It's also been true the C version the carrier version the naval version was going to have marines flying those as well. Today we have three marine squadrons aboard carriers. And we are currently undergoing a TacAir [tactical aircraft] integration look across the navy and Marine Corps to see what the proper mix is of C's for the navy and Marine Corps to make sure that we continue that integration and make sure marines continue to fly off carriers in strike fighters as well as in vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.

Lieberman: General, can you give me your reaction to this? Is that mix at this point acceptable to the marine corps? Am I wrong that you had originally hoped for a pure STOVL variant fleet?

Amos: Senator, you are correct that was the initial plan. Let me back up just a little bit. We've always been fans of TacAir integration. As the secretary said, we have had marine squadrons on the navy carriers -- on the Enterprise right now, we have Marine F/A-18s. We do that. We like that. It's good for both our services and the naval force. But when we set the requirement in for STOVL aircraft our hope was we would be able to some day fly some of those aircraft off CVN aircraft carriers. That's yet to be seen whether that would be possible. So in the meantime it would seem prudent that we sould buy some number of C variants even early on so we can begin to transition our force there. But it will be a proportional number to our overall buy of STOVL.

What's wrong with this F-35A photo? [UPDATE: mystery solved!]

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 8, 2011 11:32 AM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
[UPDATE:] There are so many things we don't know right now about the F-35: When will the US Air Force and US Navy reschedule initial operational capability dates for the F-35A and F-35C? How long will it take the F-35B to get out of Secretary Robert Gates' probationary doghouse? Will there be two engine options or one?

With so many questions, at least we have one definitive answer: Those weird humps in the photo below are not part of the aircraft, nor are they conformal fuel tanks as some have reasonably guessed. Lockheed Martin confirms the humps on the F-35A pole model is actually part of a rotator fairing, allowing the radar cross section tests to spin the model around the pole. Now, about those other questions ... [END UPDATE]


The good folks at F-16.net have spotted what must be the first publicized view of an inverted F-35A model. In this case, it's the highly accurate low observable (HALO) pole model of the F-35A developed by Janicki Industries for radar cross section testing.

But there seems to be something wrong with either the model or the photo. Can anyone explain the reason for the strange humps on either side of the canopy?


Mikhail Simonov, father of the Flanker, dies at 81

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 4, 2011 11:54 AM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
Sukhoi's Mikhail Simonov, who designed the Su-27 Flanker and unlocked the export market for the Soviet Union's most prized weapons systems, died earlier today in Russia. He was 81.

Born between the Black and Caspian seas in Rostov-on-Don, Simonov graduated from the Kazan Aviation Institute in 1954, to become chief designer of a series of all-metal gliders. Moving to Sukhoi in the late 1960s, Simonov led the flight test campaigns for the Su-24 and Su-25, then accepted the challenge of designing the Su-27 -- the USSR's response to the American F-14, F-15, F-16 and F/A-18 fighters.

For his accomplishments, Simonov received two of the highest honors awarded by the Soviet Union for scientific achievement -- the Lenin Prize and the order of the Red Banner of Labor.

Last October, London's Telegraph newspaper produced an excellent appreciation of Simonov to mark the occasion of his 80th birthday, which I mentioned here.

VIDEO: New paint scheme for Sukhoi T-50-2

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 3, 2011 7:27 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)

[UPDATED]: Russia's T-50 has a sister, and she's about to fly

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 3, 2011 1:08 AM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
[UPDATE: T-50-2 completed a 57min flight this morning, landing at 11:44am. There are now two flying prototypes in the PAKFA program. H/t: Secretprojects.co.uk . See more photos.]


First flight of the second prototype of the PAK-FA stealth fighter is expected very soon after reports surfaced on spotter-boards of taxi tests completed today at the Russian test center in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The T-50-2's maiden flight will follow the milestone event for T-50-1, which occurred on 29 January 2010.  If T-50-1 is manufacturer Sukhoi's aerodynamic testbed, T-50-2 is probably the guinea pig for the mission systems. Stay tuned for photos and video as soon as they're available. If you happen to be in eastern Siberia, point your camera at the sky. The T-50-2 just might be above your head right now!  

New update on Russia's next generation bomber

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 2, 2011 12:25 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
Russia last week rolled out a $650 billion defense spending plan that includes funds for 600 combat aircraft, 1,000 helicopters and the S-500 surface to air missile system, according to local reports. The budget roll-out also gave the Russian press an excuse to ask Vladimir Popovkin, a deputy defense minister and head of armaments, about Moscow's next-generation bomber program. Since 2009, Tupolev has been working on a military contract called PAK-DA to develop a stealthy successor for the Tu-160 and Tu-95. Popovkin confirmed the project is moving forward, but it will not be "forced", as upgrades to the legacy bombers will sustain the fleet through 2020, Artem Saker reports at Ytpo.ru. Saker also quotes media sources suggesting the PAK-DA could be unmanned -- if Russia can deploy a network of communication satellites, that is.

India re-imagines the F-35?

By
Stephen Trimble
 on March 1, 2011 12:48 PM | | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
As more details emerge of India's stealth fighter project -- advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA) -- I have started to wonder something. Is the project of India's Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) based substantially on re-imagining the F-35C with two engines rather than one?

The Indian forum Bharat Rakshak has posted new briefing slides by the ADA. Take a look at them below, and tell me what you think.




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