Not a lot of physical differences in the FTC-2000 from the other MiG-21 clones.

That big five-bladed design won’t go as high, but it will sure be quiet.

The main job of the USN is to keep internationally-recognized sea lanes open.

Baloney. The cost per flight hour doesn’t include the cost of keeping tankers in the air in support, nor discern the difference between costs of scheduled maintenance versus unique occurrences. A single aircraft in the fleet may have required a disproportionate amount of the costs cited. Or the C-17’s may be short of hours before major cists shift their figures. Its all a game by the vendors. Even if the services report the numbers you can be damn sure the vendors are skunking the numbers to create need for new builds. If a C-5N new build was hot you can be damn sure C-17 numbers would get skunked.

The money for spending domestically has dried up. I wouldn’t get cozy as a contractor or taxpayer. The flood of new revenue streams to support the beast is coming. The world isn’t getting any safer for the USA, but you wouldn’t know that by the planned cuts. I fear F-35 is going to get hit pretty badly, too.

Pioneer did a good job of briefly touching the various options. The more I look into radio wave theory the more apparent that Rafale, Super Hornet, Gripen, and the Platypus are quite solid LO designs, with all but the latter probably developed that way from the outset. The Typhoon has some good head on features, but not anywhere to the level of the others. And it’s pretty apparent that the Eagle and Flanker (non-Platypus) designs will never be great LO designs without major overhauls of their designs.

It also is apparent that some designs more or less stumbled into something resembling LO territory; like the original Hornet, Tigershark, Folland Gnat, Blackbird, and Mirage 2K. I can see how the Western air forces built so much momentum so quickly whereas others walked through the dark room with blinders on. Basically by not publicly emphasizing the design strategies they were able to pull off a significant qualitative edge.

While the J-20 and J-31 are stealth designs, you won’t mistake them for what is being developed in the West or even in Russia. Frankly, it looks like the Russians have less to worry about that any other of China’s neighbors as the Russians will not lack an edge in quality or quantity. Unlike China, the West stealth products emphasize DEAD. I don’t see China being able to neutralize S-300 systems let alone the S-400’s coming down the pipe.