Russian aircraft in general – are they usefull ??

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 07-05-02 AT 04:29 PM (GMT)]Well I have thought about posting that thread for a long time, as I know that some people will get angry and may even flame me, but I´ve been thinking about the idea for a long time.

So here is my question : Why do people believe that Russian aircraft are so much better then western systems ??

I mean in nearly every war, when forces equipped with western hardware battled against russian equipped forces the western equipped won. The same goes for current fighters, while nearly all have proven to be capable of doing their mission, I can´t say the same about their russian counterparts.

I mean we can be sure that reports about failures or success in western systems are mostly accurate, I´m not sure that all specifications given for russian systems arer true.

Just to put it right, I´m not saying they are bad, but I have seen so many posts saying they are superior and I´m not sure if it is true.

Posts like the SU-47 (?) Berkut would be superior to a F-22. I mean while we have some tested capabilities of the F-22, we have no such thing of the Berkut.

I hope for an open discussion without flaming. And plz remember this is a questions I´ve been thinking about since some time.