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No zig zaggy RAM tape, if that is in fact what that stuff was.

Is this to be the norm from here on out? I wonder. If so, a lot of kit manufactures have molded in a detail which may no longer be present.

Before anyone gets their panties knotted, relax. Those Kittyhawk kits are still perfectly good. What you're seeing is a picture of one of the air sciences test vehicles. Since it is used to expand the aerodynamic envelope, there's no need for it to have the full RAM treatment. More importantly, the light source i.e. the sun is perfectly perpendicular to the surface where you would see the tape. Which makes it practically invisible anyways. The tape is much more obvious when the light source is that a slant angle.

It would only be one of the mission system specific flight test jets that would have the full ram treatment and be fully "stealthed" up. This particular air vehicle may not even have a functioning radar in the nose; in the early part of the test program, when radar units were scarce, this simply put ballast in there since there was no need for a air science jet to ever turn on its radar.

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How can Italy afford to buy F-35s when it is still in a financial crisis like the rest of the southern Europe? Will their F-35s have similar configuration to the US F-35s especially since we're talking about a 5th generation combat aircraft?

Edited by SERNAK
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How can Italy afford to buy F-35s when it is still in a financial crisis like the rest of the southern Europe? Will their F-35s have similar configuration to the US F-35s especially since we're talking about a 5th generation combat aircraft?

How can they afford NOT to spend billions on the F-35? You can't put a price tag on security, even when your economy is in the gutter. Just make some more cuts in medical or education.

With regard to the specific aircraft, I believe that all nations are getting an identically configured aircraft, with the possible exception of Israel. I don't think the US JSF's will have any additional equipment / operating modes, only thing that might be unique to American JSF's could be special weapons capability.

I'm sure others can answer this in more detail.

Edited by 11bee
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I was told, repeatedly, way back in January 2010 right after the first T-50 prototype flew, that the Russian Air Force would have production variants of the T-50 on air base ramps and in service in five years.

Last I checked, we still haven't even seen a production T-50 variant yet.

tumblr_ndyfqnYl7B1qgv0p0o1_500.gif

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I was told, repeatedly, way back in January 2010 right after the first T-50 prototype flew, that the Russian Air Force would have production variants of the T-50 on air base ramps and in service in five years.

Last I checked, we still haven't even seen a production T-50 variant yet.

tumblr_ndyfqnYl7B1qgv0p0o1_500.gif

Its looking like there will be fewer of them too.

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If the Russians have "operational" T-50s next year, are we really in a position to quibble considering the JSF is HOW late?!

I do suspect their "operational" will be equivalent to the "operational" USMC jets we have now.

The Israeli jets will only be unique for a couple years, then their mods will be mainstream on all production jets.

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If the Russians have "operational" T-50s next year, are we really in a position to quibble considering the JSF is HOW late?!

I do suspect their "operational" will be equivalent to the "operational" USMC jets we have now.

The Israeli jets will only be unique for a couple years, then their mods will be mainstream on all production jets.

I'm just a little sensitive after hearing the Russian Stronk Crew for a while

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Interesting - another example of no zigzag RAM stripes as far as I can tell.

Those jets are covered in tape from practically every angle.

I find the video suspicious because there were no white trucks, and everybody knows the jet has to be filled with ice cubes between sorties.

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Those jets are covered in tape from practically every angle.

I find the video suspicious because there were no white trucks, and everybody knows the jet has to be filled with ice cubes between sorties.

I guess I meant to say that the tape doesn't appear to be a lighter shade of gray like it has been previously. It seems to blend in with the overall dark gray color, at least on this video.

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I was told, repeatedly, way back in January 2010 right after the first T-50 prototype flew, that the Russian Air Force would have production variants of the T-50 on air base ramps and in service in five years.

Last I checked, we still haven't even seen a production T-50 variant yet.

tumblr_ndyfqnYl7B1qgv0p0o1_500.gif

The military is likely to buy fewer fifth generation T-50 fighters, scaling back requirements to 12 after initially planning for 52, due to economic considerations, Deputy Defence Minister Yuri Borisov has said.

http://in.rbth.com/economics/2015/03/25/russian_air_force_to_buy_fewer_pak_fa_fighter_aircraft_42179.html

tumblr_m9ge2rUXFk1qagu6wo1_500.gif

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"It is better to have the PAK FA kept as a reserve, and later move forward, while squeezing everything possible for now out of the 4+ generation fighters (Su-30 and Su-35 Kommersant)".

Makes sense to me....but then again it's hard to take anything said about Russian procurement at face value. If they did postpone any weapon's project a fancy meal at the nicest drive through says they're putting the money elsewhere where its immediately needed. Or they have more chinks in the chain than they are willing to admit.

Edited by fulcrum1
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All this basically means they can't afford it. Yes they are spending a lot on their military, but to grow in size means you can't keep expensive development projects alive.

By now, Russian leadership must have noticed how woefully outclassed they would be in a confrontation against the West.

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Those jets are covered in tape from practically every angle.

I find the video suspicious because there were no white trucks, and everybody knows the jet has to be filled with ice cubes between sorties.

Yeah but the fuel in the KC-130 would be cool cuz their in flight.

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