Friday, January 31, 2014

M-346.

This is coolbert:

Yet once more to the topic of the military TRAINER aircraft also capable of combat missions on demand.

From Strategy Page:

"Warplanes: Poland Favors Italian Trainers"

 "January 30, 2014: Poland is buying eight Italian M-346 advanced jet trainers with the option to buy four more. The M-346 is considered one of the best jet trainers . . . The M-346 is a 9 ton, twin engine, two-seat aircraft. Top speed is 1,000 kilometers an hour. Max range with two drop tanks is 2,500 kilometers. The aircraft can also carry three tons of weapons, including bombs, missiles and a cannon pod. Thus the M-346 is an excellent dual use aircraft, as a trainer and fighter-bomber."

That M-346 an competitor with the Yak-130. Small nations such as Poland, or not wealthy and even impecunious favoring the combined trainer/combat warplane! This makes sense!

". . . Russia is selling the aircraft to foreign customers for about $15 million. The M-346 costs fifty percent more."

M-346, Yak-130, the South Korean Golden Eagle adequate for the task as specified. Performance not equal to say a Raptor, a Eurofighter, a French Rafale but not expected to be! ADEQUATE!

Do NOT confuse the M-346 with the Italian AMX light bomber. The appearance between the two warplanes is quite similar but not the same aircraft.

And as usual we defer to the opinions of the Soviet era GRU intelligence office Suvorov and his pronouncement regarding Italian military combat systems engineering:

"The GRU know that the Italians have very good brains, the brains of great inventors. Few people realize that before the Second World War Italy's technology was at an incredibly high level. The Italians were not especially brilliant in battle, and that obscured the extent of  Italian achievement in military technology."

coolbert.

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