Russia’s fifth-generation fighter aircraft — being developed in collaboration with India — has again been delayed. In late October a senior Russian air force officer said that the fifth-generation fighter is expected to fly by 2012, the RIA Novosti news service reported. “The deadlines have been set[the fighter] must take to the skies in 2012 and enter service [with the Air Force] in 2015,” said Lieutenant General Igor Sadofyev, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force. “International cooperation and joint development efforts will certainly expedite the process,” Sadofyev said.
(EDITOR: Photo is of an S-37 Berkut, once thought of as Russia’s 5th generation fighter. There are no pictures available of the current one.)
Less than two years ago, on 17 January 2006, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, General Vladimir Mikhailov, said that Russia’s fifth-generation fighter plane would be ready to fly in 2007. “Work to build the fifth-generation plane is going according to schedule,” Mikhailov declared.
However, the project has encountered some financial problems with civilian aircraft being produced using money allocated in the budget for fighter planes. “Clearly, the development of aviation technology will depend on specific military and economic conditions, determining the progress of reform in the Russian armed forces and the country’s aircraft construction industry, explained Mikhailov.
(At the time the general also said that “We are actively working on the modernization of MiG-29 and MiG-31 planes. New equipment could be installed in their cockpits that will increase their efficiency two and a half to three times.”)
Russia and India have agreed to jointly develop the fifth-generation fighter aircraft. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who is co-chairman of the Russian-Indian commission on military-technical cooperation, said that the new multi-role fighter is being designed by the Sukhoi Bureau, which has developed a long line of Soviet-Russian fighter and strike aircraft. India has agreed to cooperate with Russia on research and testing of the aircraft, and to future joint production by India’s HAL corporation.
While the categorization of fighter-type aircraft by generation is somewhat arbitrary, the technologies that best characterize fifth-generation fighters are advanced integrated avionics systems, which provide the pilot with a complete picture of the aerial battlespace, and the use of low observable or “stealth” features in the design and construction of the aircraft. Most experts agree that the U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor and the multi-service F-35 Joint Strike Fighter/Lightning II, now in flight test, are the world’s only fifth-generation fighters currently flying. Both the F-22 and F-35 series are produced by Lockheed Martin.
Beyond the Sukhoi Su-47, the Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) design now known as the MFI is the only other fifth-generation fighter on the horizon.
India has been a customer for Soviet-Russian military equipment for a half century. Soviet-Russian warships dominate the Indian Navy, with the ex-Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, now being rebuilt in a Russian shipyard for future service in the Indian Navy. The Indian Army uses a large amount of Russian ground combat equipment while the overwhelming majority of the Indian Air Force’s aircraft inventory was built in Russia or in India to Russian designs.
The buildup of the Indian armed forces overshadows the advances being made by other Asian military forces, including the massive modernization of the Chinese armed forces.
Big surprise, who didn’t see this coming. A covenant excuse for a project that is having bad results.
Maybe im wrong. Either way when you copy the United states design and add features so you can say it isnt a direct copy, you get bad results. They copied the F-15, the B-1, the B-29 (back in the day, which ended up hurting them in the long run) the F-111, and the list goes on. Funny how the American planes always were better then the cheap Russian copies. They are never exact copies because they have national pride, but they were defiantly copies. I just cant see anything Russian giving the F-22 a run for its money, for at least another 10–15 years.
Good point 22lr. Russia even copied the space shuttle with bad results.
Hollywood hyped up Russian/Soviet military superiority(anybody remember the Firefox movie) to play the Soviet Union off as a better government system than ours.The military industrial complex played this off in order to get more money to “build” their toys(however this was paying for fraud,corruption,& graft,because we didn’t give very many toys for our money).The only thing that the Russians/Soviets have/had going for them was that their weapons systems were so simple [to use that] a caveman could use them.Also,their planes could land & operate from crappy airfields & out of crappy hangers.Filling the skies with an overwhelming QUANTITY(which has a “quality” all its own) of these,& Chinese,“simple” aircraft would give a single F-22 stealth fighter/bomber a run for its money,especially if the overwhelming Russian/Chinese/Pakistani/Indian/Turkish/Iranian planes were flying in a zone defense CAP pattern(each plane assigned to a certain zone) with the ability to calculate the direction a missile was fired at one of their planes so that they can mass towards the area to target the possible “bogey.” Also,if they could figure out how to produce a massive EMP field(Tesla Dome) over their air space,that would also help because nobody ever said if the F-22s,F-35s,F-117s,&/or B-2s were ruggedized to withstand EMPs.
Roy said, “Hollywood hyped up Russian/Soviet military superiority(anybody remember the Firefox movie) to play the Soviet Union off as a better government system than ours.“
you just made the rest of your post irrelevant. you don’t happen to be a former McCarthy office staffer?
2015… I wonder how much jet fuel will cost then? Maybe they should develop a fighter that runs on batteries & biodiesel?
It’s an interesting corner of the world though. You have 3 major powers (China, Russia, & India) bumping elbows, with each trying to grow & modernize. Imagine if these countries decided to start slugging it out, or if they banded together to take on the world.
“We” hype up Russian weaponry as being so superior as a reason why we need to keep paying for more modern weapons of our own,& then “we” contradict ourselves by saying that their weapons are over hyped(meanwhile the military industrial complex has just feathered their beds with billions of our tax dollars) & then say that is why we don’t need these “modern weapons” anymore & then we retire,scrap,sink,& cancel weapon systems.Doesn’t anybody else see this scam going on?How many dollars have we spent in “panic buying” before we came to the conclusion of this article? Just wait until after the big November Middle east peace conference in Annapolis when “peace & safety” fills the air & we can all(the world over) finally disarm & turn all of our weapons into plow shears(I’m being as sarcastic as I can be & remember my snarling sarcasm & vicious mocking when Sec. of State Rice announces peace & safety in our lifetime after November 29,because I’ll STILL be doing it AFTER her soon to come momentous announcement).
If you follow the link to globalsecurity.org, you’ll find the real reason why we don’t have to worry about the Russians…
“The Russian government has promised to allocate 1.5 billion dollars for the PAK FA through 2010. But the Russian Air Force is receiving less than 200 MILLION DOLLARS a year during this period, and will spend it primarily on other needs.“
$200 million. I don’t know what the exact US Airforce budget is, but I’m willing to bet it’s closer to $200 billion.
USAF currently receives $36 billion annually.
I have two observations.
1) After seeing the picture it took me several minutes to stop laughing and get-up from the floor. It has been over a decade since I followed Soviet aircraft development. To see them fielding an X-29 was … well … soooo last century U.S. Although, it does prove that they are still active in industrial espionage.
2) Hey Roy! Isn
typo correction: it should say …
“worst president in history”
Using electronics from Israel &/or France is a legitimate concern.Technically,we are all still allies(the U.S.,Israel,France,Turkey,Russia,China,Pakistan,& India).Israeli technology might not make a plane invisible to radar,but it can help upgrade a fighter significantly.Then the only thing crappy about Russian fighters are their jet engines.We’re laughing at & mocking Russian technology(aren’t we?),but we seem to forget the legal acquisitions that Russia can make from western nations like France,Germany(who has both updated & sold to Poland their inherited former East German MiG-29s),& yes,even Israel.I was told,back in the day when the F-15 was king,that the only advantage that the Soviets had over the F-15 was a numerical advantage in Russian jet fighters out numbering our F-15s.Well,we have even less F-22s(& I still think that it should have been the F-23 being built today instead of the F-22,hmmm,was corruption & bribery involved with that decision also?) & I still say,if you put enough fighter jets in the air that one will get lucky when it comes to shooting down an F-22 Raptor.Law of averages my friend,law of averages.Remember,our potential enemies don’t have the same value on life as we are supposed to have,so losing a few fighter jets in order to shoot down an F-22 Raptor is just the cost of doing business.Maybe they could convert a Gulfstream into a fighter aircraft,while maintaining the appearance of a luxury private jet.I guarantee you that an F-22 pilot wouldn’t see THAT coming.Talk about “stealth,” & you can’t just shoot down every plane,military OR PRIVATE.ours or theirs,that crosses your path in flight.There are all kinds of sneaky ways to defeat an F-22,Boeing 747 “stealth” fighter jet anyone?
A “stealth fighter” Boeing 747 does not have to out maneuver an F-22,it just has to behave like a passenger or cargo jet & sell the idea to the F-22 pilot that that is all it is.It can even carry 300–400 passengers like a straight up passenger jet.Then if it spots an F-22,it can surprise the hell out of the F-22 by firing an AA-11 Archer R-73 at the F-22 or if the F-22 shoots down the 747,a public relations nightmare will occur because the F-22 shot down a “foreign ‘civilian’ passenger plane” with 300–400 passengers killed.
Passenger & cargo jets can be weaponized & flagged as civilian airliners(Aeroflot,Iranian Airlines,etc.).They can fly passengers on regular air routes,maybe deviate the flight path to attract the attention of F-22s & get them to go up close & check out what is going on.…& pow,hit them with an AA-11 Archer R-73 missile,& if the F-22 shoots down the passenger plane,then the F-22 just killed 100s of women & children.
The same idea goes with secretly arming passenger ferries,oil tankers,& other civilian ships in the Persian Gulf with Sunburn & Yankhont anti-ship missiles.When an aircraft carrier,helicopter carrier,or any other naval ship comes in site,then suddenly fire the missile to sink the targeted ship.I’m talking about the use of legitimate civilian ships performing their tasks as ferries,cargo ships,& oil tankers,but armed with mach 2.5 supersonic anti-ship missiles.Hey,it is conceded that the “enemy” cannot match the U.S. plane to plane or ship to ship militarily,so asymmetrical warfare is the way to go,& it would really suck if a plain old tanker or Dhow sunk a multi-million or billion dollar ship,especially a nuclear powered aircraft carrier.
Um America won the space race, the cold war, and despite the Russian best efforts other wise we are winning the war on terror. Russia might have better something, but nothing in their military can beat an American equivalent. When you copy an others nation war equipment, you normally end up with second class stuff. Russia is also very irresponsible with selling there stuff, heck who just sold Iran stuff to make Nukes.
On the 747 taking out a F-22 or merchant ship taking out an aircraft carrier. No F-22 pilot is dumb enough to get in front of a 747 and sit there. And no merchant ship is getting anyware close to a carrier with out having a crap load of planes over it. Face it Americans are just not that dumb. Could it happen, maybe but why would anyone even try it. For the money it would take to modify a 747 to fire missiles you could buy a good number of AA guns, which would be more effective. Also no 747 is going to still be flying if it attacks a F-22, that just ain’t happening I don’t care if its loaded with 500 kids, it just ain’t going to happen.
Americans don’t joke around when it comes to protecting their equipment, and I just cant see anything like that happening. Russia has tried to keep up with the United States, they failed once and their trying again (I would bet they will fail again).
Doz,
The APG-65 espionage was a fairly well-known scandal in the 1980s, and the MiG-29 link was confirmed when the West got to examine the MiG-29s in the former East German air force. A web search can provide more references, but you could check Jane’s Defense Weekly 1991:01307 — “MiG-29 radar ‘is US design’” — “Inspection of NVA aircraft taken into the Luftwaffe inventory has confirmed that the radars follow the Hughes APG-65 design, gained by espionage.“
And please, don’t quote me alongside Roy. I deserve better than that.
The proposed Russian Fifth-Generation Fighter is not the Berkut. The Berkut was and always will be a technology demonstrator. The Fifth-Generation Fighter in development by Mikoyan is the MiG 1.44/1.42.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan_Project_1.44
Good Morning Folks,
The story here is not that the Russians are working on the next generation of fighter, heck they are working on the next generation of Tanks, Submarines, ICBM’s and just about everything else. The punch line here is nothing is happening other then Putin running off at the mouth. All of these projects are not even going to happen till 2025 or beyond, sure.
The back story here is that the Russian Aerospace Industry is so far gone that they have to partner with India on a project of this level of importence. At some point the world is going to have to admitt that Russia is not a first team player in world events, the Soviet Spent itself into bankrupticy competing with the United States, does anyone raally think that Putin and his pals are going to spend their money on military expansion? Never happen.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
Just to make sure that I wasn’t smokin anything,I looked up the LAHAV Division & Elbit Systems websites.They both advertis upgrades for MiG-21s.Elbit Systems promotes upgrades for MiG-21,Su-25s,& MiG-27s.Elbit Systems also promotes an Heads Up Display for a MiG-29.A lot of these Fighters is owned by India,who also cooperates with Russia.
Also,I just read on Bloomberg.com that the U.S. Navy is so concerned about Russia’s advanced anti-ship missiles(like the Sunburn & Yankhont) that they have suspended building more aircraft carriers & other [big] ships until they have an answer for this anti-ship threat.As we all know,Russia has sold these missiles to both China AND Iran.That is in addition to China’s own produced mach 2.5 anti-ship missiles.I also read about a war games exercise where the “opposing” general,using the tactics that I just described,sunk 16 American naval ships,including multiple aircaft & helicopter carriers,using only the “ancient[sloooooow dial up]” silkworm missile.
This exercise didn’t use the lickety split Sunburn or Yankhont missiles.Do you know what the U.S. Navy did? They did a “do over” in this exercise. They “raised” the sunken ships from the bottom of the ocean(or Persian Gulf in this case) & then they declared “victory” over the evil Persian Empire.They also covered up the real results of [thankfully] just an exercise or war GAME.
This is also why I’ve been talking about a potential military alliance of Russia,Iran,Turkey,China,Pakistan,AND India. India,Turkey,& China have Israeli technology & Turkey has modern F-16 fighter jets(& some pretty damn good jet engines).If they all put their heads together,they could come up with some pretty respectable upgrades & new fighter jets. If they could get the Ukraine on board,they’d have French technology to boot.
Also,unless things change,Turkey plans on buying some F-35 stealth fighters in addition to their modernized F-16s.
Also,in my lifetime(I was born in 1958),we only had two decent presidents,Dwight D. Eisenhower & Ronald Reagan.All.…All.….ALL(with a capital A-L-L) of the other presidents(& that includes John F. Kennedy) that we [have] had(past tense)/have(present tense) sucked(past tense)/suck(present tense) & were(past tense)/are(present tense) horrible.
Roy,
Israeli companies have been trying to market avionics upgrades for Soviet fighters for years. I don’t know how much success they’ve had, but the existence of such upgrade products does not imply that they’re being supplied to China or Russia.
The supersonic anti-ship missile threat isn’t exactly a new one. The Soviet Union had a fleet of supersonic bombers and nuclear submarines equipped with such missiles to attack US carriers. That threat was the impetus for the Cold War Outer Air Battle strategy and development of the AEGIS system. It’s still a formidable threat, but it’s highly unlikely that the US Navy is as unprepared for the threat as you allege.
The effectiveness of Silkworm missiles during the Millennium Challenge exercise in 2002 stemmed from the theoretical deployment of those missiles on small boats. The Navy allowed the boats to get close enough that they could fire before the Navy could react. The plausibility of that tactic has been hotly debated within the Department of Defense, but I think it’s highly likely that in the event of hostilities with Iran, the Navy will go ahead and sink anything that floats within a wide radius from the fleet, negating the potential effectiveness in any case. Silkworm missiles fired from shore or from military aircraft are going to lack the proximity required for surprise, and navies have had 25 years since HMS Sheffield to figure that problem out.
Once again what navy ship is going to allow an boat to get near it with out monitoring it. And any small boat that could avoid detection probely isn’t big enough to launch a missile of size to damage a navy ship. And even if a Mig had state of the art radar, it lacks in almost every other area, so it isn’t going to help to much. A f-22 is stealth, has awesome radar, has the largest engines ever put on a fighter (from what I understand, but I could be wrong), and is made in the USA by skilled professionals. I dont see a MIG even coming close, yet alone any MIG in use right now. Even If they had a Israeli radar the F-22 is stealth, so your out of luck.
George is correct. In a real life situation the U.S. Navy would not allow a missile-carrying platform within shooting distance.
In March, 1986 the Navy was actively confronting the naval forces (ha ha) of Libya in the Gulf of Sidra. When the Libyan Nanuchka and LeCombatant missile patrol ships departed the port on the eastern coast of the gulf and lined-up for a missile shot, the Navy sent aircraft to destroy them. Weapons used were Rockeye and air launched Harpoon.
Was there.
George,
“The APG-65 espionage was a fairly well-known scandal in the 1980s, and the MiG-29 link was confirmed when the West got to examine the MiG-29s in the former East German air force. A web search can provide more references, but you could check Jane’s Defense Weekly 1991:01307 — “MiG-29 radar ‘is US design’” — “Inspection of NVA aircraft taken into the Luftwaffe inventory has confirmed that the radars follow the Hughes APG-65 design, gained by espionage.“
Apologies for quoting you with Roy
But this APG-65 issue — the APG-65 is entirely different from the N019. The N019 is a very unimpressive radar compared to the APG-65. That it has a twist-cassergrain antenna is the most obvious difference to the APG-65, so I don’t know how Jane’s could claim the N019 follows the design of the APG-65. It’s processing power is nothing to write home about either — it can only engage one target at a time (just like the Su-27’s original N001).
Of course, this has all changed now, but back then the radars for the Su-27 and MiG-29 were all brute force and no processing power.
As far as naval ship protection,I read that our navy is supposed to have the Sea-RAM system which is supposed to be a souped up version of the Phalanx weapon system.As far as the enemy goes,we should ALWAYS assume that their weapons are better than ours & then be pleasantly “surprised” when we find out that they were crap after all.Arrogance will get us killed,arrogance & hiding our heads in the sand & refusing to even examine the possibility that there could be truth to the idea that some of their weapons.The people “preaching” the superiority of our weapons,especially the F-22,better know what they are talking about,because the population will turn on them on a dime if bad results happens.Those “F-22 preachers” will be severely punished for feeding us propaganda bullshit based on their arrogance.You better hope you are right about the F-22,because the consequences are severe if you are wrong.Nobody likes a loser.
One of the things that confuses me about the Bloomberg article that I read is that they talk about the Russian having the “Sizzler” missile,which I never heard of.I mean,the “Sizzler” is where I went to for steak,I never heard of it being a missile.I read that they are talking about the Klub missile that is subsonic & can be launched from Kilo subs.I also think that in that naval exercise concerning the Silkworm,it involved a general trying to think outside of the box.Unmanned surface crafts roaming the perimeter of any fleet would be a logical thing to have for protection.Having Aircraft Carriers in the Persian Gulf is a worthless gamble because Tehran is on the other side of the nation & totally out of reach of naval aircraft launched from the carriers.F-22s,B-52s,B-1s,& B-2s are the only way to reach out & touch Tehran,the Fifth Fleet needs to get out of the Persian Gulf or else it will be at the bottom of the Persian Gulf.The Navy’s Admirals know this all too well.
Roy, NATO codenames weapons like the Sizzler, and the Russian give them their own names, in this case, the Klub. Also, you certainly aren’t keeping up with the news on the F-22, it is an extraordinary aircraft, generations ahead of the nearest current rivals.
Pilots report that they can see the aircraft with their own eyes, but can’t lock a radar missile onto it, and usually can’t even lock a heat seeker on it. That is not to say what happens when their planes are reported to have been shot down from out of the blue, with no warning. But, we will make a huge mistake if we stop buying them now. I believe the Russians are waiting for us to end production so they can begin building there own version in far greater numbers.
It would be my contention that the F-22 is ruggedized for EMP, as we spend a lot of money testing for that stuff. Civil equipment is not so likely though.
The stealth cargo fighter would work like — against maybe one F-22. Then they will be shot down like all the rest. Also, even massed fighters are useless if they can’t find the F-22.
Roy, hello… Turkey is a NATO allie and not likely to allie with Russia, India’s biggest threats are Pakistan and China — no alliances there. And Iran is not close to allying with anyone as they hate most everyone who is not Shia Muslim. They still think Russia is a little Satan.
Also, I guess you haven’t been told we are biulding the new Gerald Ford-class carriers to replace the Nimitz-class. First one is to be launched around 2015. Also, we have been shooting down Silkworm type missiles for decades. The Phalanx is great for those type of missiles. RAM missiles are even better. For the most part Roy, your not really well informed.
I agree with you when you say we cancel weapons, often weapons we should be buying, and then spend a lot more money building a new version of the same thing ala the Seawolf/Virginia.
Wembly — I agree that the Russians are often underestimated. I was a Russophile in my early days and was always impressed with many things they did. The Russians were way ahead of us in Multiple Rocket Launchers for decades befor ethe MLRS came out. Fortunately, they were poorly led by mostly incompetent political leaders.
Doz — The MiG-31 radar was the first passive Electronically Scanned Radar, but the B-1B “Bone” was the first aircarft to fly with one, and the passive array is nothing compared to the newer Active Electronically Scaaned Arrays (AESA) like those on the F-22.
Camp — We are testing our transports to us synthetic fuels now, and it is likely fighters will be tested soon.
I wouldn’t be too sure about that MiG-29 radar,as these days it is accepted as being a development from a Russian 60’s design. And amusingly enough the espionage was the other way around — not so amusing for Adolf Tolkachev who gave details to the US and was executed for it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Tolkachev
22LR, Newsday’s October 5th 1957 front cover headline was “Russia Wins Space Race.” Is someone rewriting history where you live?
Strategypage.com has an article “Indian Air Force Gets Screwed” about how the Indians have practically no influence on the new “stealth” fighter that Russia is building.Apparently the only partnership that India provides is monetary.There is a group of people who believe that Turkey will go into the Russian-Iranian camp & with Russia & Iran,form up the nucleus of the predicted “Gog/Magog” alliance.Adding together the present & former nations along with “observer nations of the three organizations,the “Collective Security Treaty Organization,the “Economic Cooperation Organization,”& the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization”,then you have AFGHANISTAN(yes,THAT Afghanistan),Armenia,Azerbaijan,Belarus,China(big 200,000,000 part of the second wave “Kings of the East”),
GEORGIA,INDIA(part of the second wave “Kings of the East”),Iran,Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan(home of Manas Air Field),Mongolia,PAKISTAN(who is also a major ally of China/part of the second wave “Kings of the East”),Tajikistan,TURKEY,Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus(because of Turkey),Turkmenistan,Russia,& Uzbekistan.It is a toss-up to me if Moldova & the Ukraine join up in this alliance.In fact,the only former Soviet States who won’t join this alliance are Estonia,Latvia,& Lithuania.
Turkey,NATO Ally(?) Turkey,has no chance whatsoever of joining the EU.The snub,along with their discontent over the Iraq War & the Kurds harboring the PKK will push them into the arms of the Russians(who also supplies arms to them) & the Iranians.
I also do not doubt the superiority of the F-22,but we shouldn’t piss away our other weapons systems like the F-15,F-16,F/A-18,& our retired & crushed to pieces,F-14(which despite the flaws,has not been adequately replaced by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet).Nor has the AIM-54 Phoenix missile been adequately replaced & it was a great mistake to cancel the AIM-155 Advanced Air-to-Air Missile.
Please don’t say that we don’t need those missiles,that there is no “threat.” Those or the LIES of the “Snake Oil Salesmen” trying to sell the disarming of the U.S. with the delusion of “new weapons” to replace them.We are truly a “Reprobate Mind” nation being sent a “Strong Delusion” that we might believe a “Lie.” The lie is the selling of these whiz bang new weapons(that haven’t even made it past the development stage in several cases) to replace the old weapons we have retired,sold off,sunk,scrapped,blew up,crushed,made into “artificial” reefs,turned into “target drones,” hollowed out & made into “Museum pieces,” etc.
Crap!!! A[n uninvited,undetected] Chinese Song Diesel Submarine popped up up right in the middle of a U.S. Naval Exercise between Southern Japan & Taiwan.A “crappy” diesel “made in China” submarine surprised the U.S. Navy. Well,one can justifiably blame this on those environmental idiots who won’t allow our navy to train with sonar to be able to catch that sub.One web site is saying that the Song submarine was undetected because of its rubber coating(I guess “rubber” bounces off me,sticks to you,huh?).
This is a very large case of us(the U.S.) allowing our arrogance & condescension of other military threats to get the better of us. I’ve read how China,Russia,& Iran will combine to attack our forces through a combination of EMP weapons,satellite killers(to blind us),in China’s case,launching such an overwhelming swarm of surface-to-surface missiles(like a sky full of arrows in the movies “300” & “Braveheart”) that our Patriot missile defense & Aegis systems will have to be programed to make “Solomon” type decisions on which missiles to intercept & which ones to allow to pass through.China will also launch obsolete fighter jets converted into UCAV drones against our navy.In the case of Iran,they’ll launch anything that floats & arm them each with anti-ship missiles.
We’ll be screwed because of our overwhelming arrogance & pride refusing to allow us to even contemplate that our potential enemies could even launch such a daring pre-emptive strike.Meanwhile Russia with rest rest of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization/Collective Security Treaty Organization member states sweeping into Manas Air Field & finally Turkey telling us to get out of Incirlik Air Field & pulling out of NATO altogether.
If your going to post a picture of a badass advanced Russian fighter couldn’t you use the MIG 31 of Firefox fame?
Mach 6, stealth capability, thought control combat system.
At this point its about as real at the next gen Russian fighter.
Sorry but I thought the space race ended with the man on the moon. Sorry but um America won that, Russia didn’t even come close. Dont believe everything you read, I always thought the race was to the moon, and we all now who won.
Arrogance is the word
to describe the American’s post here. Sure the jsf,and 22 are undoubtedly untouchable right now by anything in the sky. as for russia it does what it does best find out exactly what’s need to destroy both. you can’t negatively comment on an aircraft that you have know idea/information about whatso ever and say the jsf is better can you? after all it’s going to be designed to cash in in the flaws of the jsf. as for india it’s just a third world country tryin to make ends meet like kissenger said “they live in a tough neighborhood”
Abishek, — There plane hasn’t even flown yet, and to you it is already better than ours. Most good aircraft require a considerable period of flight testing to perfect, note that the F-22 has well over ten years of fligth testing behind it, and the F-35 has almost nine years of development. Seems the Russians would be making a huge mistake forwarding a plane the is not tested properly. But, we clearly don’t know what the plane will do when it is finished and we need to consider that. I don’t think we are ignoring the Russians, but we are confident that our technology is good based on our past performance comparisons — most of which place the Russians in a poor light.
Roy, I am beginning to think that you don’t think we are capable of fighting a war, when in fact we have more experience than nearlly all other countries combined. China is the least experienced, and yet you grant them almost mythical powers along with the Iranians. I am fairly convinced that they both have much to learn when it comes to launching truly complex military operations, something that comes with experience. The last time China fought, the Vietnamese fairly whipped there behind. Iran could only fight the Iraqis to a stalemate at best. And the Iraqis didn’t stand a chance when tried to go at us.
I do believe a country can use some tricks to bloody our nose at times, but Roy, be honest, you can only play the Statute Of Liberty, and the double reverse plays so often before someone catches on.
And we of course Roy, we better get building the F-14s, F-15s, F-16s, F-18s, F-117s, F-22s, F-23s, F-32s, F-35s, and why not the Eurofighter, Gripen, and that unwanted Rafale (no one but the French are willing to buy it), since we are going to be fighting everyone from the Turks, Russians, Iranians, Pakastani, Indians, Chinese, Myanmar, Vanatutu, Sri Lanka, and Pago Pago single handedly. Who cares if they hate each other. And that is only the first wave, wait until Gog and Magog, the Hittites, Assyrians, Babalonians, and the Mede-Persians arrive.
And we better be sure the fighters can survive EMP, phasers, photon torpedoes, and tact-ion bursts. You can never be sure when the Klingons and Romulans will arrive for the third wave. And we better figure out how to detect those stealth Bird Of Prey craft. Wait we can ask Boeing, didn’t they build one of them?
Abishek, I think most of the posts here have been thoughtful, and not arrogant. But, if we are arrogant, it can only be because those who call us arrogant are jealous. Please tell me what country you are from and what famous war planes your country builds. I don’t recall a single foreign aircraft that was able to shoot down an F-15 or F-16 from the sky, and that is our old technology, and that applies even when other less skilled foreign pilots fly our planes. So far, you have only mentioned only a wannabe plane, that only our closest rival (likely still somewhat distant) hopes to fly. Remember their Project 1.44 — their first answer to the F-22. It really wasn’t that impressive, and even the Russians had to acknowlegde that.
Abishek, I think most of the posts here have been thoughtful, and not arrogant. But, if we are arrogant, it can only be because those who call us arrogant are jealous. Please tell me what country you are from and what famous war planes your country builds. I don’t recall a single foreign aircraft that was able to shoot down an F-15 or F-16 from the sky, and that is our old technology, and that applies even when other less skilled foreign pilots fly our planes. So far, you have only mentioned only a wannabe plane, that only our closest rival (likely still somewhat distant) hopes to fly. Remember their Project 1.44 — their first answer to the F-22. It really wasn’t that impressive, and even the Russians had to acknowlegde that.