I would of joined the RCAF and been a Hornet pilot, except for one thing: I can’t swim. If it wasn’t for that I definitely would’ve joined… I have excellent hand-eye coordination, I’m really good at LOMAC, I am in perfect physical condition, I have a high IQ, I can perform mathematical calculations in my head extremely fast… Why do pilots need to know how to swim anyways? What are the chances of a CF-18 pilot ever getting into a situation where he has to swim? Damn Canadian airforce, ruined my plans…

I heard it will have an AESA radar with a detection range against a 1 metre squared target of 400 kilometres.

Yeah the Limeys had a lot of designs during the cold war. I fail to see why these designs are an indication of an advanced UK aerospace industry, when they didn’t get far at all. It’s not as if they were almost ready to put them into production. Most of the designs were cancelled in the very early stages.

One thing is certain at least, and that is that the UK’s aerospace industry was far inferior to the aerospace industry of the French!

How can a country of 2.5 million people with a military budget of only 1.6 bllion USD afford 80 F-16E’s? Is the US subsidizing this purchase?

I disagree with everything that was posted so far.

The fact is the Zaslon is just too powerful to hide from. Despite the Raptor’s low RCS, a Mig-31 should be able to detect the F-22 from far enough away to be able to fire a missile at him before the F-22 has a chance to fire its AMRAAM.

I think in a 1 on 1 engagement the F-22 still has a slightly better chance due to its better maneuverability and ECM capabilities andn the fact that it can see the Mig-31 much sooner. But to say that the Mig-31 has no chance is not accurate at all. Out of all planes currently in service anywhere, the Mig-31 represents the biggest threat to the F-22.

62 Su-27UBs and 63 Mig-29UBs? I dont believe that.

I believe they are upgrading their Mig-29s to a Mig-29BM standard or something like that.

No they don’t have 62 Su-27’s, those are the serial numbers of the planes not the quantity.

The airforce is quite small compared to Ukraine’s and Russia’s. Their active fighter aircraft include 40-some Mig-29’s, 70-some Su-25’s, and a small number of Su-24’s and Mig-23’s. Older aircraft like Su-17’s, Mig-21’s, and Mig-25’s are also in the country but they do not fly, just waiting to be destroyed. According to some sources they also have Flankers but I’ve never seen one so either they have very few or the sources are wrong. Probably returned to Russia.

Belarus also has the facilities to perform complete overhauls on most Soviet-built aircraft including engine rebuild and avionics so their aircraft should be in good condition.

If we ever go to war against China we can use it to knock out their jets. If a small marine patrol craft can knock out two J-8’s imagine how many chicom jets something the size of the A380 can take out.