Say WHO? You?

Whilst French aircraft products are good they are inferior to British products and the Typhoon is a superior product to the Rafale in all respects bar the carrier capable which again is inferior overall except it has the ability to land on a carrier which is one-up on the Typhoon.

“What could possibly need 41,000 feet of landing strip? “

I really have no clue but did wonder if something slow with an experimental powerplant system, take off too a few metres alt then move on down the runway/path, not being sure how well its going to go they decided to make a freakin big runway so it could rest then go up again. I don’t know and am trying to think outside the norm, and failing I think so will stop.lol.

What people always forget is that the internal weapons bay of the F-35 is pityfully small…. 2 Large bombs and 2 small AAMs.
So again.. hanging weapons under the wings of the F-35 in order to turn it into a bomb truck does what?

SDB with DIME warhead gets around the ‘only two large bombs’ issue as they perform what I understand very much like conventional sized munitions do.

Waste of time? Nope!

“it will never be a true multi role aircraft like the F-35 or Super Hornet”

Who said?

Can a F-35 or Super Hornet carry six GPS/Laser Guided Bombs, six AAM’s and a centre line fuel tank on a mission? Or even four Laser Guided Bombs, two drop tanks, six AAM’s, LDP on the centre line hard point for that matter?…Look it up, it can.

It seems to me that this is just a giant jobs program for the UK and Europe

Whats wrong with making jobs out of something like this? Nothing wrong with supporting your own industry.

It’s a fine aeroplane, never heard any pilots or airforces complain about it or it’s future. Pretty much says it all really doesn’t it.

I think you’ll find that the massive bomb and missile load would never be used in combat, much like when pics of the F-15E used to appear in magazines and books years ago of it carrying 24 bombs.

Iraqi MiG-23MS/MF/MLs were credited with 18-20 confirmed kills and few more damages, including six F-5s, 10-12 Phantoms and three F-14A Tomcats (one made it back crippled).

Thats actually pretty damn impressive sounding, cheers for that info.

Ah right, it’s about Iran right? Using a couple good SAM systems to stop one of the most heavily armed air forces in the world? That’s a bullsh1t comparison from the start, the US doesn’t need any F-22s or F-35s for that. None. Zilch. A bunch of B-52s and F-18Es will do the job.

Cause you know, any formidable DEFENSE will have multiple batteries of S-300PM/S-400/TOR/Pantsyr/Buk-M2/Su-35/PAK-FA/MiG-31/A-50/Tu-160/Tu-95MS/Tu-22M3 employing Kh-101/555/31P/31A/29/35/38/36 bla bla bla.

If you want to get off on the wonderous USAF destroying 1960 era SAMs in the Middle East or a few batteries of the S-300, you are well, easy to please. :rolleyes:

EWLRS is as you guessed – long range. Good luck flying right to it.

But America can afford to just do anything they like? I don’t think so.

They are never going to touch anything that Russia will directly protect.

Which makes the problem much easier, as most allies are of much smaller size, which means you can have some serious overlapping defenses.

Right, as is with the S-300PM/S-400 LPI radars. Fact is, you don’t need specifics. Altitude is all nice, but once you know the coordinates of the enemy, you problem just got 10 times simpler.

These “great” aircraft have been F-15s – hardly new line technology.

Thankyou for your information. It is now perfectly clear to all involved that all aircraft and the roles they perform in military service are obsolete thanks to the incredible Russian Sam systems. There really is no point taking to the skys anymore as the second an aircraft takes off a mighty Russian SAM knocks it back down again. Airforces of the world are as we speak must be mothballing their ancient flying machines and disbanding all squadrons as the threat is simply to great to deal with. :rolleyes:

Let me introduce myself and present my credentials. I am a retired USAF Msgt,22 years on active duty.I was the #2 Enlisted maintenance man when the 4477th was organized under Constant Peg. My name is Don Lyon(aka “Uncle Don”) I know MiGs, period. I have communicated with Steve Davies VIA E-Mail and ‘phone, and believe what he has written to be very accurate. I only found this site today, and after digesting it for a while, realize the vast majority of you pukes dont know the difference between the pointy end of a MiG VS the sooty end. What idiot stated the aircraft were poorly maintained should have his private parts dipped in Skydrol while they are still attached. We had no maintenance manuals, but made up checklists as we went along and these were constantly revised / updated. What we did have a vast supply of was TALENT.There was a lot of “reverse engineering” and late night bull sessions that pooled the days lessons learned into a program we could work with. At times we were lucky enough to talk to the previous owners / operators and pick their brains for any info we could use. The Officers were of a caliber unknown to most Air Force folks, not only the Pilots, but GCI controllers as well. Seen many of them do a lot of things their counterparts would cringe at. Same with enlisted, not just the Crew Chiefs, AGE mechanics, Avionics, just a very talented, dedicated group. Best assignment ever, no doubt about it.So you “know it all pukes” out there,keep your mouth shut concerning things you know nothing of. Questions? I’m available. Complaints? Sorry, complaint dept. is closed.

Its nice to see someone genuinly in the know about Migs on the forum as the Russian fan boys can be very tiresome talking about jets they have only ever seen in pictures.

[B]the KID is 51 now boy….

Thats shocking as you act more like an 11 year old if i’m honest about it. My kids act older then you do, Son.