March 28, 2006: The Russian air force is buying 24 new Su-34 fighter bombers. This is the latest variant of the Su-27. The Su-34 is somewhat like the American F-15E, a high performance fighter modified to act as a very effective bomber. Aside from it's similarity to the F-15E, the Su-34 has one very distinguishing characteristic. The cockpit for the two man crew not only allows for tandem (side-by-side) seating, but is spacious enough for the pilots to stand up and, standing behind their seats, stretch a bit. There is also a toilet and cooking facilities back there as well. The cockpit itself is protected with 17mm lightweight armor. The canopy does not open, as the pilots enter via a hatch near the front landing gear. The cockpit is pressurized for operations under 33,000 feet (above that, they have to wear the usual flight gear). Although the Su-34 looks like a fighter, it's as heavy as a bomber (44 tons max) and can carry up to eight tons of weapons. It's 77 feet long, with a wingspan of 48 feet. By comparison, the F-15E is 36 tons, 64 feet long and with a 43 foot wingspan.
F-111 is 73 feet, 6 inches (22.0 meters) lond with a wingspan of 63 feet (19 meters) full forward; 31 feet, 11 1/2 inches (11.9 meters) full aft.
An even more lavishly equipped (with sensors) version is in development, to replace the Su-24 (for long range precision bombing.)
Posted by: Steve ||
03/28/2006 09:17 ||
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#1
The Russians need to build an economy, not an air force. They still have the wrong people in charge.
#2
The cockpit for the two man crew not only allows for tandem (side-by-side) seating, but is spacious enough for the pilots to stand up and, standing behind their seats, stretch a bit. There is also a toilet and cooking facilities back there as well. The cockpit itself is protected with 17mm lightweight armor. The canopy does not open..
which means the Ruskies can't use the kitchen sink as a in a fight. engineers, can't trust 'em!
#5
The Russians need to build an economy, not an air force.
It seems sometimes they try to do both at the same time: a few years ago a local airshow I attend was scheduled to host a Russian demo team flying Su-27's (I believe). At the last minute the the show's sponser dropped the Russians, announcing in a very angry letter how they will never again even attempt to host a Russian team. Apparently the Russians were trying to extortnegotiate more and more money from the sponser as the date got closer.
#7
Wonder if the plane will someday be featured on a very special episode of Pimp Your Ride.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/28/2006 13:07 Comments ||
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#8
Probably the same thing we'd come up with if we wanted to make a modern-day mediuum bomber like the 'vark. IIRC the Aussies still fly the F-111s. Great aircraft.
#9
" . . . and can carry up to eight tons of weapons."
That doesn't sound like much for a plane that big. Here's what www.fas.org has for the F-111 (a similar-sized plane):
"Up to four nuclear bombs on four pivoting wing pylons, and two in internal weapons bay. Wing pylons carry total external load of 25,000 pounds (11,250 kilograms) of bombs, rockets, missiles, or fuel tanks."
Posted by: Tibor ||
03/28/2006 14:52 Comments ||
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#10
Real fighters don't need toilets or cooktops, that is more for long endurance flights ( Like a P-3 maybe), but bombers could, this whole airplane is a compromise and if you could lose that widow's hump, it might just be a pretty airplane, but IMHO, it's Fugly. Side by side seating is bomber stuff, also (think Intruders or BUFFS). I think anything the US has could wax it in a dogfight.
#11
Real fighters don't need toilets or cooktops, that is more for long endurance flights ( Like a P-3 maybe), but bombers could, this whole airplane is a compromise and if you could lose that widow's hump, it might just be a pretty airplane, but IMHO, it's Fugly. Side by side seating is bomber stuff, also (think Intruders or BUFFS). I think anything the US has could wax it in a dogfight.
Well if you try to perform some violent maneuvers like high G turns or loopings in a plane equipped with toilets you are going to understand the full meaning of "being in deep shit"
Since his ouster in the bloodless Rose Revolution in November 2003, Georgias former president, Eduard Shevardnadze, has lived in old-fashioned elegance in the diplomatic quarter above Tbilisi. One recent morning, his house bathed in shadows, he talked to me about his life, reaching back through the murky events of Georgias recent past to his role as a reformer during the last years of the Soviet Union.
The estate house was totally silent, except for the low murmur of two women chatting in a far-off room as they set a table for lunch. Apart from his security guards and three housemaids of a certain age, Shevardnadze lives alone. Nanuli, his wife of 54 years, died in October 2004 and is buried in the garden. We sit by a low table set with liquor and fruit in a large living room whose walls are covered with paintings by modern Georgian artists. When I ask about them he stares vaguely at the pictures. I dont know much about them, he explains. My wife did the collecting.
I remember a very different Shevardnadze in the late 1980s a mischievous member of the Soviet elite, jokingly interrupting U.S. Ambassador Jack Matlocks welcoming speech during one reception, then making the rounds of Western journalists who until then considered themselves lucky to see a Kremlin leader at 100 paces. On one such occasion, he leaned unexpectedly into our faces and asked cheekily if we had any questions on the most delicate international issue of the moment Afghanistan.
He, of course, was the man who masterminded the Soviet pullout from Afghanistan in 1989, the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact and sweeping disarmament treaties. In December 1990 he broke with Mikhail Gorbachev, warning of an impending coup and chiding his erstwhile friend for his passivity. During our conversation, he glided over his less glorious post-Soviet career: president of an independent Georgia that slipped into civil war and corruption, a man who was the target of three bloody assassination attempts and who, according to most enemies and some admirers, was by the end unable to control even his own familys rapacity.
These days, at the age of 78, the former leader is more subdued. He occasionally tripped over dates, then caught himself, but flashes of wit remained. He told me how he and Gorbachev had already been friends for more than 20 years when, shortly after coming to power in 1985, the Soviet leader summoned him from Tbilisi to be foreign minister. I was mind-blown, Shevardnadze recalled, pouring a cognac. I had been abroad three times in my life: Portugal, India and somewhere else. I told them, I dont even know where the ministry is. (Gorbachev sent a driver who knew the way.)
The new foreign ministers contacts with the United States were rocky: Ronald Reagan made it clear that he was talking to the Soviets out of duty, not pleasure. The relationship warmed, though, as Shevardnadze a raconteur himself grew fascinated by the U.S. presidents endless store of jokes. So at our last meeting before he left office, I asked him where he got them all from, Shevardnadze related. Reagan went very quiet, serious, and I thought, What have I said wrong? Finally he answered: You know, something is happening with my mind. I can remember things 30 years ago, but I cant for the life of me recall what happened yesterday.
A couple of years later, Shevardnadze paid a courtesy call on Reagan in California: He came out looking fit and healthy, but his eyes were empty, Shevardnadze recalled. He doesnt recognize you, Nancy said. `Dont be offended: He doesnt recognize anyone except me.
The most vicious battles were fought at home, as Gorbachev and his team struggled to transform the Soviet Union economically and politically, and Shevardnadze engineered the withdrawal from Afghanistan. When I announced to the generals that we were leaving, there was a tomb-like silence, he said. Ordinary soldiers wanted out, but not the generals. They had become millionaires trading in drugs and diamonds. The generals never forgave him, he said.
In December 1990, Shevardnadze stunned the world by abruptly resigning, warning of an impending counterrevolution. He offered no proof at the time, but he had it, he told me. Generals former Afghan commanders were assembling tanks and troops 100 kilometers from Moscow. Asked how he knew this, he answered indulgently. I had between 5,000 and 6,000 people working for me in the Foreign Ministry system, he said. A third of them were KGB. I was very well informed. Gorbachev, however, remained in denial, and just before the real coup was launched in August 1991 he went on vacation. We all knew they would try something, but he went on vacation, Shevardnadze said.
During the abortive putsch Shevardnadze supported Boris Yeltsin, but their alliance quickly crumbled. Back in Georgia, Shevardnadze was sympathetic toward the Chechen war of independence, and remembers the Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov killed in March 2005 as a modest, calm man, someone you could come to an agreement with. Aides have long linked all three assassination attempts on Shevardnadze to Moscows anger at his independent policies. The third attempt was the best prepared, he remarked almost appreciatively. The attackers were pro-Russian Chechens trained for the job in a Russian base in Chechnya, he added. Surely that means that Yeltsin was behind the attack, I asked. He smiled, and moved on.
Turning to the present and the young ministers who overthrew him in 2003, Shevardnadze remembered fondly Zurab Zhvania, prime minister under the new dispensation, who died unexpectedly a year ago. Zhvania used to call from time to time to ask advice, he said. He dismissed the official government account that Zhvania was accidentally poisoned by a faulty gas heater. He was murdered, he said, adding that he does not know by whom. I asked if President Mikheil Saakashvili ever calls, and the former president seemed not to hear. A final toast indicated that time was up. He said he has just finished a 700-page volume of memoirs. It will be published in Germany, France and possibly the United States. The translation from Georgian to Russian will take time, he adds: Some rather frank formulations will need to be smoothed a little.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/28/2006 01:06 ||
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#1
The estate house was totally silent, except for the low murmur of two women chatting in a far-off room as they set a table for lunch. Apart from his security guards and three housemaids of a certain age, Shevardnadze lives alone.
You just have to wonder why someone like Shevardnadze would tolerate a pompous, self-righteous reporter like this one. Ah, I see Shevardnadze is willing to do it because he is hawking a book.
#3
When I announced to the generals that we were leaving, there was a tomb-like silence, he said. Ordinary soldiers wanted out, but not the generals. They had become millionaires trading in drugs and diamonds. The generals never forgave him, he said.
#4
So at our last meeting before he left office, I asked him where he got them all from, Shevardnadze related. Reagan went very quiet, serious, and I thought, What have I said wrong? Finally he answered: You know, something is happening with my mind. I can remember things 30 years ago, but I cant for the life of me recall what happened yesterday.
A couple of years later, Shevardnadze paid a courtesy call on Reagan in California: He came out looking fit and healthy, but his eyes were empty, Shevardnadze recalled. He doesnt recognize you, Nancy said. `Dont be offended: He doesnt recognize anyone except me.
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