mabie, Its not about spending, the US can spend billions does not means one other country have to spend the same, You need to understand country which first ‘created’ the Crystal Blade technology is the one who would have spent a LOT in the respective R&D, while the countries later following suit need not spent the same amount to get the job done.
Speculations about the generation of stealth vis-a-vis American counterparts aside, In a generalised form “correct me if I’m wrong”
F117 – Aerodynamical stealthiness.
B2 – Propulsion stealth plus the above.
F22 – Stealth in all aspects, mostly six, viz IR, Noise, Contrail, Aerodynamics , Materials etc.
HOWEVER, to me YF-23 seemed stealthier than F22, regardlessIt is yet to be seen how the Indo-Russian PAKFA shapes up viz the above, developing unidisciplinary systems is to me not going to be too much challenging rather than integrating and making a all encopassing bird having all these systems working in tandem perfectly, thats definitely is going to be a challenge.
I’m also wondering if Russians are developing any good engines with T/W ratio of over 10:1.
Regarding the bolded part, you have essentially retaliated what you have said before, but I’m sticking with what I said; that generation of stealthiness being first or second vis-a-vis their american counterparts is not going to be determined just because it is Indo-Russian first effort to develope a stealth jet, regarding the catch-up part, well why not; I dont expect the US to sit idle for a decade and half. They have the money, they are leading for now; It will be infact surprising if they does not keeps the lead going.
Joey, I can respect your views though I have to disagree and say that as systems become more and more complex, spending is absolutely key. “No Bucks, No Buck Rogers” as the saying goes. I really hope the PAK-FA materializes, but no doubt the Russians will make mistakes, just like the Yanks did. At least they know stealth aircraft are possible thanks to Lockheed. And who knows what compromises will have to be made in performance/capabilities because of budgetary/time/commercial pressure.. unfortunately they won’t have the same leeway the USAF seems to have had when they designed and built the F-22 with all its bells and whistles and no expenses spared attitude. The crystal blade tech is a good example. Others have been able to copy the technology but how come there’s no real equivalent to a F-119 at present.. where’s the AL-41F that’s been talked about for so many years. that’s just one piece of the whole technological cake that makes up a 5th gen fighter, and right now the US has the recipes in their cookbook and all the ingredients in the cupboard. Imagination, creativity, hard work, are great and the Russians have been able to push legacy tech to its limits but they really have lots of constraints vs western counterparts.
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