[quote]I have heard Mig-21s being sold for $1M and throw $4M for upgrades and for $5M one has a mean fighter armed with R-33s to R-77s. African nations should consider these instead of buying F-16s with downgraded export versions. /quote]
I would think that a Mig-21 upgrade would appeal most to countries that already have Mig-21s in service.
Already having it in service means they already have the aircraft, they have the support infrastructure and a spare parts pool and pilots and support crew already trained and familiar with the aircraft.
A few upgrades to greatly improve performance and capabilities without costing too much make a lot of sense, but for a new customer it would probably make more sense to buy something like the Yak-130 modified to have a nose mounted radar.
They could buy a batch of 200 or so, with 2/3rds having two seats for use as trainers and light strike/attack roles, and the remaining 1/3rd as single seater light fighters, perhaps with a better radar and RVV-SD and RVV-MD missiles, and a belly mounted gun position.
It is subsonic, but with the single seat model you could probably take out the two engines and replace it with an RD-33 or something, which will make it supersonic and give it commonality with any Mig-29s you might also have.
At $50-60 million each, I think having 8-10 Foxhounds should be a good investment for IAD and especially if the country is not too big in size like Iran. With long range capable Awacs killer missiles, IrAF can give some serious headaches to Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
I would think Iran is largely thinking of the US, Israel and Iraq as problems on her borders.
Iran should take steps to improve relations with Turkey... steps towards Saudi would likely be a waste of time...
I can't believe Russia bows down to threats from Israel and US. Mig-31 is more of a defensive weapon.
It was the Yeltsin years... he pretty much agreed to and signed everything they put in front of him.
Fortunately that has changed.
Putin knows Yeltsin gained very little for his actions... the west simply didn't respect Russia and saw his compliance and weakness.
Putin reminds the west that Russia is not obliged to do anything it doesn't want to.
Btw, is it true that Israel has the capability to jam or neutralize S-300s and that too by BAE Suter type program?
The West, lead by Israel and the US invested a lot of effort to stop Russia delivering the S-300 systems Iran bought.
Being able to jam an old model S-300 you got from the Ukraine is one thing, but any computer specialist will tell you that hackers hacking into a system have an advantage that they just need to find one weakness.
My exCIA lecturer on Computer Security once told me that computer security is like securing a high rise building... you need to ensure external and internal doors that should be closed and locked remain so, but to actually be able to use the building as a working facility doors and windows need to be able to be opened by the people who need to open them when they need to open them. That means giving lots of different people different levels of access for different periods of time while keeping unauthorised people out.
But that works both ways... an attacking force will have a network of information and command and control that can also be hacked and manipulated. Needless to say as weakneses are found they are closed or can be monitored and made into a trap... imagine the next Israeli raid into Iran they hack into the air defence network and as the strike package approaches they turn the sector of the main radars that would otherwise detect the strike package off and freeze the image of the sector so those watching the radar in that sector see a frozen image that is empty... but when the strike package is deep into Iranian territory... surrounded by air defence systems that are not on alert because their main radar has not detected the threat... suddenly the hack is blocked and the radars are restored to full coverage and suddenly the strike package is visible in the middle of Iranian territory.
The bombers/strike aircraft would have to dump their payloads and get out of there as fast as they can...
Then they will find out how far those old obsolete Iranian missiles have been upgraded...
There have been stories that they threatened Russia with 'S300 neutralization' if they are sold to Iran and thus smashing the S300 market globally. Russia did back off from selling these to Iran eventually.
S-300 is no longer in production, so the effect on exports would be negligible.
Besides any weakness they might exploit to defeat any particular model of S-300 can be nullified with an upgrade modification. Passive sensors can be added, decoys, anti jamming systems... even defeating the air defence network wont help because each system can operate independently as a separate system.