@Intelligentsia.
6 Sukhois cannot possibly cost 1.2 billion US dollars. I read somewhere (sorry, have no link) that an advanced fighter aircraft goes from 30 to 50 mill USD. Except the F22 Raptor, which the US is not even ready to sell yet

did i read Jenga 'wananichi' Kaa-ndume...

oops my bad.. it's Njenga wananichi Karume

@skabz you are right it includes all those; initially the birds will have to be piloted by experienced Ukranian crews as no Ugandans have currently have any xperience with this bird for now.

@bs consider that UPDF has over 8000 soldiers in the AMISOM. Fair pay, great experience (battle hardening in the most dangerous country in the world)...In 3yrs time, nearly the entire UPDF will have served in that hellhole....thats sth to ponder, right?

@Spear, quality does not come from sitting in the barracks through entire career punctuated by a few peacekeeping operations. It comes from the battle front period.

The cost of maintaing and keeping these 4th generation craft in the air for just one hour is staggering!!! no one want to go to war spending all that money without a sound economy in place. Ask the Americans the cost of war.

For deterrent purposes, their acquisition might be justified. But with corruption from recruitment to promotions rife in the military, it might even be a challenge to even get a truly genuine, A- student, very intelligent Kenyan to fly them! and what with supporting infrastructure?military satellites, air refuelling planes,communication toys....

I suggest we work on the economy, keep corruption out of military as a matter of urgency, the rest usually fall in place...

Wow!!

I am very surprised that most here support M7's stupidity in buying some useless aircrafts that he will never use. He could improve the morale of his army through better pay to personnel.

Facts,
- Uganda may own the fancy jets but chances are due to poor pay to their personnel, poor training etc, if it were to come to a time to use them, the gadgets will probably malfunction as a result of poor maintenance and lack of technical knowhow.
- Ug may be able to bomb her enemies once or twice before running out of the bombs ( I read somewhere that a tomahawk is Usd 8m) so one wonders how much a variant for this russian jet will cost and just how many Ug will buy and keep in stock. Therefore the cost of fighting a war with such gadgets will be too prohibitive and not sustainable for more than 3 sorties.
- I am yet to here of a war that was won by air superiority only, even the US had to put boots on the ground in Iraq to subdue them after billions of $ spent on bombing campaigns. The russians chased a ragtag army in the Afghan mountains for years using airpower and eventually gave up and returned home.
- The only deterent you need to neutralise the UG jets are SAMs moved in a mobile SAM launchers that you can procure from Russia for a fraction of the price and will not need running costs, place a few around the likely targets and the jets will suddenly have no viable targets
- And finally outside the US and her western allies and Russia no other country in the world has been involved in a war where it needed to deploy such sophisticated weaponry.

Museveni is purchasing this jets to use in independence parades and nothing else, if he doesn't know it yet, he will learn very painfully at the waste he will have gotten himself in.

I actually like the way we spend on our military, we should simply maintain a small highly motivated and mobile army that can be easily deployed if necessary.

Heavy weaponry (e.g a main battle tank) is expensive will probably never engage a viable target in this parts of the world and breaks down easily while the light armour is cheaper to use and maintain and can be deployed rapidly.

I would suggest we vary our military expenditure to recruit and train about 5,000 new recruits every year on a 5 year cycle in which time they should be a modest pay but also be trained in some skill, such that they form a reserve force equivalent to the standing army. The young men will after 5 years leave the army highly disciplined and with a skill and they can be arbsorbed into the police, fire dept, the KWS or move into the private sector where such disciplined skilled individuals will be in high demand. At the same time, they will retain their reserve status for say another 10 years.

I would also like to see acquisition of more mordern light armour including some mid sized helicopters, transport planes that are simple to maintain. and light tanks and personnel carriers.

Having said this, our military budget as a proportion to the entire budget should always be below, education, health care, agriculture, development expenditure, police and security matters and all those costs that are critical to the well being of the common mwananchi.

M-7 has expansionist ideas. Because he is a mzee he believes akina Raila, Uhuru, Kikwete . . . are sosa. And considering his old school revolutionary ideas . . .

@Thimioni,
Haven't followed this thread as such but hopefully,it's not that those Vikois (Plural for Sukhoi)can beat our Northrops...If you confirm this,i am off to a refugee camp...sorry folks.I have to go...lol

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Ama yetu ni Northrop probox?

Trying to post an image.....nimechapa kama socks ya michuki.