Not sure if serious, or just very lazy.

Quite serious! Where is the (vague) laundry list of differences?

The SM3 still has the old N001 radar. How is that superior to BARS?

The only real point of contention there is .. is the radar, yes.

The domestic N001V is supposed to have some significant improvements in A2A engagement range, however, so the gap may not be that big at all in practical terms.

A red cover over the laser designator ???

Ken

The rad-warning on the nose… 😮

I’m sure there were some over Georgia. Plus the obvious Eritrea vs Ethiopia war. Ain’t that battle tested enough?

Those were hardly extensive operations.. now were they?

But hey, I would hardly consider F-15s to be particularly thoroughly tested either, given their monkey-model hunting history. 😉

It is a good argument and it seems you haven’t fully understood its implications. Every litre of fuel which Russia doesn’t use for itself doesn’t only equal money saved, it can also sell that gas at “sky high” prices to the US and EU. Export revenue on 30+% of the fuel used in each and every Il-476 flight is lost to the Russian economy, for absolutely no good reason. How many flights, of how many hours do you think the entire Il-476 fleet will rack up over its entire decades-long life? We are talking huge sums just going up in smoke from fuel alone, with no performance or purchase price advantage to the Russian air force in exchange.

Quite apart from that, there simply is no reason (other than your extremely weak and specious “battle-tested” argument) NOT to kill the Il-476 and use the Il-96/An-70 instead. It isn’t better. It isn’t cheaper. Best of all, the An-70 at least will probably get built anyway. Every single Kopek spent on the Il-476 goes down the drain for absolutely nothing in return.

Whhhaattt?? Sell that fuel to the EU? What is sold to the US is determined by simple market supply and demand. And Russia is hardly at full capacity.. long or short term.

The reliability argument is perfectly good – far better than the issue of fuel savings. The BS argument of F-4 vs. F-15 is perfect hindsight. The F-15 could have been a broken piece of crap just as easily..

The Il-76 is a battle tested, tough,reliable aircraft.

The An-70 is none of the above at this point.

Self explanatory.

All in all, when judging the T-50 one should bear in mind that Sukhoi’s target to match was probably not the F-22 (too expensive, not exportable) but the F-35 (and J-20).

“The Su-35S is of course no match for the F-22. But the PAK-FA will be.”

Pogosyan, Farnborough, UK

If you’re assuming i’m American and hoping that slighting American aircraft will wind me up you’re sadly mistaken. I’m from Europe. And we all know what you say isn’t true anyway, unlike what I said. Better luck next time. 😉

My only assumption is that you are braindead. The PAK-FA’s resemblance to the Flanker starts and ends with the engines. Its the nozzles, mind you, which aren’t even final product. But you knew that, right? :rolleyes:

And on the inside, who knows.. cockpit instrumentation and computer equipment probably comes from the Su-35S.