Posted on 05/07/2009 9:16:03 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Sukhois In The US (Officially)
Posted by Bill Sweetman at 5/7/2009 8:31 AM CDT
Two Sukhoi Su-27UB trainers have just turned up in the US. They're probably not the first aircraft of the type to be acquired by US operators - but are probably the first that anyone will talk about, since there have been multiple Su-27 sightings in the neighborhood of Air Force Flight Test Center Detachment 3, popularly known as Area 51.
One of the two Su-27s before delivery (Tac Air)
The two new arrivals have been acquired from the Ukraine by Reno-based Tac Air, which provides training and test support to the military. (The company was involved with testing of Raytheon's hush-hush LSRS radar, for instance.) They arrived some months ago in suburban Rockport, Illinois, in the hold of an An-124 cargo aircraft, and are being overhauled and modified (with US radios, for example) by warbird specialist Pride Air. The company says that the work is nearing completion.
Su-27 arrives in Rockport (Pride)
The new aircraft will join Tac Air's fleet of L-29 and L-39 trainers and MiG-17 fighters, and enable Tac Air to become "the first company offering fourth-generation fighter training support," the company says.
As a kid, a friends dad told us that Area-51 was not the UFO haven but full of Soviet military hardware that was being evaluated. He warned a lot of their stuff was prone to catastrophic failures.
I still prefer the Su-26m!
That really makes a lot of sense! The level of security would be similar but the testing would be remote and away from the public. More importantly, the results could be kept away from the NY times.
Your friends dad was correct. - he still is.
Maybe the Su-27s would be fitted with a new glass cockpit replacing the traditional analog and maybe Pratt & Whitney F100s would power the Flankers, owing to the unavailability of Saturn-Lyulka AL-31Fs.
Then then can go for DACT against USAF Eagles and Vipers, even the Raptors.
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