What was best Mig fighter used by the Romania?, What was best Mig used by the Romania?

The baltic mission was a good image example for RoAF. It was also a little ironic (Migs against Russia).

On the other hand, it would be interesting to see an intercept of the Su-27 by a Lancer cell. The Sukhoy would be a little constrained by range issues to use extensively afterburner, thus bringing an amount of leveling in the game. Also it would have been a contest between Su`s maneuvrability and the DASH helmet. Also the minimal amount of flight hours russian pilots get would enable them to fully use the Su-27`s capabilities?...

About russian pilots, in Russia-Georgia war, in august 2008, in 5 days of conflict, russians lost 4 aircrafts.

http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2009-110-28.camOu

The tactical aviation pilots fly 20-25 hours per year.
Our Lancers still remain a credible asset in this conditions...

Russia lost six planes in its war with Georgia last August, not four as was officially announced, and at least three were downed by "friendly fire", a Russian military journal reported.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL8262192

Hmm, i really hope we'll have some more modern aircrafts as soon as possible, since even Mig 21 Lancers had a very fine avionics, they are still outdated as construction

Indeed, outdated and also tired. Airframe fatigue depends of age and flight hours, avionics can`t change this. And the Lancers soldiered for almost 40 years..
That`s why, because of numbers and service time, I consider them the most significant aircraft for our Airforce, and my vote went for them.
Unfortunatly, because of economic situation, they will still defend us at least for 2-3 another years.

Yes, as service, they was the best, but as pure technical capabilities, Mig 29 was obviously better.

I don't really now how Mig-29 would looked modernized, and if it could be, but I'm sure it'a quite difference between Mig 21 and Mig-21 Lancer. Sure it's a difference between Mig 21 and Mig 29 (a plus, 29 it looks better), but on many privinces Lancer and Mig 29 are quite appropiate. I do not refer at technical performances, like range, ceiling, etc. I refer here just at standing each against other in battle. Because there are much other factors they could compensate some advantages of each or other.
An important factor is the pilot, maybe the most important factor.

I don't really now how Mig-29 would looked modernized, and if it could be, but I'm sure it'a quite difference between Mig 21 and Mig-21 Lancer. Sure it's a difference between Mig 21 and Mig 29 (a plus, 29 it looks better), but on many privinces Lancer and Mig 29 are quite appropiate. I do not refer at technical performances, like range, ceiling, etc. I refer here just at standing each against other in battle. Because there are much other factors they could compensate some advantages of each or other.
An important factor is the pilot, maybe the most important factor.

Well, a modernisation of Mig 29 was tried, with Mig 29 Sniper prototype, but the fact that the resource of the engines and other materials was passed off, and new stuff from russians was hard to achieve, it was ged rid of them unfortunately (and premature i think), since i like very much Mig 29. Probably, in "good ol" tradition of things who happened in the interbelic period, some persons even want that to happen soon, so to buy stuff from outside, for a nice "comision" and regardless of how good or bad are the "new" (or second hand) things achieved.
But, with avionics and new equipments (as DASH helmets, new radar and new AA more maneuvrable rockets) Mig 21 Lancer can compete with other more modern jets, but as Hadrian said, they have a really outdated and tired airframe, and new planes are needed soon.

The Sniper program was similar with the Lancer, except it kept the old radar. The 29 is a more capable aircraft, with more range, maneuvrability and payload. On the other hand the 21 is easier to mantain and cheaper to fly.

The russians were very angry about it because they were not involved in modernisation (they called it "unauthorised" ) , and afraid this could lead to taking over the lucrative market from them. We couldn`t get new engines and ocould ther spares from them. On the other hand, we assimilated the capital repairs in country for the 21's since the seventies, and we could procure spares from outside and from canibalising the unmodernised aircrafts. We could modernise 110 MiG-21 or 16 MiG-29`s, so logic dictated the first solution.

This post has been edited by Hadrian on January 06, 2010 04:41 pm

A few years ago, I read that we made an offer to modernise Croatian Migs 21. It was about one first lot of 4 Migs, who Romania will modernise with Lancer program. Do you know something else?

It is a common mistake that the Croatian MiGs got the Lancer upgrade. They didn't.

It was just a normal overhaul coupled with a limited upgrde to allow them to safely operate in a civilian ATC environment and participate in NATO exercises. For this purpose a few systems were replaced with the same ones used on Lancer (navigation, comms and IFF). That's it, the weapons system, radar, cockpit, RWR, etc. remained the same.

The Croats sent 4 MiG-21 UM and 8 MiG-21 bis at Aerostar in 2003, after the overhaul and limited upgrade they were redesignated UMD and bisD (D stands for upgraded in Croatian language)

I've talked with a Croatian pilot and he said they've sent their worst planes at Aerostar, not the best as it's usually done in such cases. The reason was they intended to get some sort of license from Aerostar and perform the same work in Croatia on another 20 MiGs. They didn't get the license nor funds from their Government so they got stuck with the 12 worst birds in the fleet flying and the rest grounded and used for spares. Needless to say they had (probably still have) plenty of problems with maintaining them airworthy.

Thank you, Vici, for the answers. Those are interesting facts.
Do you know anything about the upgrade of Saudi Arabian's Puma by IAR Ghimbav and Elbit? There was an another country still interested about upgradind their Puma helicopters.

The Pumas are from the United Arab Emirates. They are designated IAR-330 SM. 24 of them, upgraded with French stuff, including Makila engines (same as thoe used on Super Puma). Elbit dos not participate, it's an Israeli company. No Arab customer will accept Israeli equipment on its aircraft, especially military !!!

You'll find a lot of pictures of them the IAR Brasov site:
http://www.iar.ro/photogallery.html

This post has been edited by Vici on January 07, 2010 12:09 pm

I only know about for (3 Su-27 and one Tu-22M). Which were the other two?