Spain has the same flag now as that reintroduced by Franco’s fascist regime in 1936, the same as that used up until 1931, save for the coat of arms. Italy had the same flag from 1861 to 1948, including under Mussolini’s fascist regime. It was changed not because of fascist associations, but because of the abolition of the monarchy: the royal emblem was removed from it. Otherwise it remains the same.

Being used by fascists does not make a flag fascist.

That is if you equate fascist Spain or even Italy with Imperial Japan.

Depends on what you mean by “maneuverable”. The J-20 will beat the J-10 in high alpha. With thrust vectoring it could probably beat the F-22 and T-50 as well. This is a knife fighter with long legs.

http://youtu.be/lw-gug6GdEI

J-20 is not for sale (similar to the F-22). Doubt the J-20 will be mass produced like a J-7/J-8 (maybe J-11). The chit-chat at Chinese defense BBS is the J-20 will only be in the elite squadrons. Initially it was believed that CAC will create the J-21, a single engined downgraded version of the J-20 but it seem SAC has grabbed the opportunity instead.

I wouldn’t be so sure. J-20 is a CAC project, and historically CAC fighters were always exported – no exceptions. It is SAC that has the exclusive relationship with the Chinese military. SAC fighters were never exported. If SAC is also building a stealth fighter, I would say most likely that is the program with the NOT FOR SALE sign on it.

Gripen NG with IRIS-T is said to have anti-missile capabilities, and I am sure other modern fighters with similar missiles can do the same.

However you run out of missiles quite rapidly…

The Viggen could lock on to aircraft in a head on intercept and point itself for a super sonic gun kill. With self guiding shells, I wonder if missile intercepts are now plausible.

Well, we can start by asking what weaknesses do 5th generation fighters have that needs to be solved, and couldn’t be solved through simple upgrades of 5th generation fighters.

My point of view is if the next generation fighters are to be manned, there’s really no point making them more agile, since any maneuvering which can escape next generation weapons would also kill the pilot. Protection must therefore be much more than fighter agility. No doubt next gen fighters need to be even stealthier, but what’s needed is active defenses. These days even land vehicles are being equipped with them, I see no reason similar systems would not equip future fighters.

Basically, JFK happened.

By the end of the 50’s the Sino-Soviet Split was in the open. This was in large part due to the personality clash of Khrushchev and Mao. However in 1960-61 the Cold War suddenly intensified. The Soviets canceled their peace summit after the Gary Powers U-2 incident, while candidate for President John Kennedy campaigned on a more confrontational approach.

JFK did not recognize the significance of the Sino-Soviet Split and continued to treat the two as a cohesive bloc. Immediately after taking office, he launched multiple initiatives that was threatening to both the Soviets and Chinese. Perhaps the best known were the Bay of Pigs and the widening role in Vietnam. As a result Khrushchev and Mao tried to repair the split. The effort was short lived, but perhaps the most significant outcome was the incomplete transfer of MiG-21 technology to China.

This had a major effect on Chinese aviation. China spent the next decade trying to reverse engineer the MiG-21. It’s plans for an indigenous Mach 2 fighter was scrapped and all of those engineers were ordered to spend the next three years studying the MiG-21’s aerodynamic properties. This would lead directly to the J-8.

Except the empty weight, nothing is surprising for me.

Maybe the definition of “empty” includes minus engines. 😀

the problem is that with modern technology, that code can change every nano-second. this means the code-breakers never have enough material to find the cypher, because it changes every time it’s used, so there’s simply no pattern to recognise

I’m no expert, wouldn’t that be limited by the Byzantine general’s dilemma?