Yeah, other countries don’t upgrade their aircraft do they…

To be quite honest, I’m not sure what there is to be worried about…

I’m sure they will, but to compare those aircraft with a mature platform, when they’re still behind in many of the technologies, is perhaps overstating things. I have no doubt they’ll be significantly greater threats than 4th gen aircraft.

F-35 sensors have been tested on other aircraft(and F-35s have been flying with production representative engines, and not a temporary solution till the real engines are ready), and LM had the benefit of having built the F-22. There’s also a huge assumption that neither the Russian nor Chinese aircraft will require any redesigns whatsoever.

Well, exactly i wasn’t behind ECM aircraft flying abowe and near Serbia completely scanning and jaming anything and everything Serbia had, so i can’t answer that. But don’t tell me F-117s were flying blind as Serbian Mig-29s Yet both got shot down. Thats the point.

In any case, SAM is a SAM weather you are in 1975, 2000, or 2011. It will see you and hit you. Its been proven over and over. Specially if you are a loaded non stealthy aircraft.

I think its ignorant to count on easily disabling even older SAM system that is wide and numerous, in one-two punch that includes bombing hardened targets.

Iran has confirmed 29 Tor-M1s and they will be watching to shoot anything they can. Also, unlike S-200s, Tor-M1s will hardly be easy targets as they are small and fast moving!

First of all, there was only one F-117 that was shot down, and yes, it was as blind as the Migs(no ECM, RWR, MLD/MAWS).
Secondly, I already pointed to a recent example of non-stealthy Israeli planes flying into Syria undetected, and unopposed by SAMs.
Thirdly, 29 TOR M1s is hardly an inpenetrable gauntlet, and they aren’t the targets in any event.

The PAK-FA and J-20 will enter service in a similar time-scale to the F-35. Both are limited to A2A for good reason and it is much easer to do so without restrictions in size and related operational cost. From 2020 we will see the first useful A2G variants from that in a much more limited number. Neither Russia nor China will replace their present fighter inventory with a similar number of expensive 5th generation fighters. 😉

Only if they have significantly fewer test points to validate the aircraft for serial production. Neither the Russians nor the Chinese have production representative aircraft flying, much less the number of test aircraft of any variant. This also assume that neither of their aircraft have any issues in testing, which shift the IOC to the right.

Let`s just be fair and admit guys that Chinese proved that they certainly can do it at the same level as Russians maybe even better. It’s my two cent worth opinion that sometimes it happens that a student can carry on and take over just where the teacher leaves off.

We know very little about the PAK FA, and almost nothing about the J-20. It’s way too early to come to any conclusions about how they compare to one another(or the F-22/F-35).

yes but at low level they have Tor-M1 systems, and plenty of them.
If SA-2s and SA-6, SA-3s could down western aircraft in 1999, why S-200 would be any less dangerous! believe it was SA-3 system that saw and hit F-117 despite all the countermeasures.

Which countermeasures would those be exactly? The F-117 never knew it was under attack, until it was too late. How many Tor M1s does Iran have? How dense is the protective umbrella?

Maybe you should continue reading, because there is a good point there aside from premature comparison of the two birds. People who fly F-22, or order F-22s to fly war mission will never be in a fight on a home field.

That fact, in addition with being outnumbered by J-20s alone, and 500 Generation 4 aircraft over China by 2020 is the point of the article IMO. Not one on one dog fight.

I doubt the J-20 will reach IOC by 2020, much less be available in greater numbers, than F-22s(which by the way will be 185, not 18). There will also be several hundred F-35s in service by then, as well as ~500 Super Hornets/~114 Growlers, as well as hundreds of AESA equipped F-15C/Es, and likely some upgraded Block 50/52 F-16s too.

That’s highly speculative on the first 2 counts.