Their air intake isn’t efficient at very high speeds either….

Nor is their payload. Not sure about combat radius without refuelling but terribly susceptible to ground fire.

http://sputniknews.com/military/20151009/1028265759/china-aviation-fifth-generation-aircraft.html#ixzz3o5lyrngL

China’s leading aircraft manufacturer is about to start exporting its fifth-generation fighter jet, according to industry sources.

In a recent report, China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC) revealed some tactical and technical characteristics of the J-31 Gyrfalcon fighter at the last air show in Beijing.

Pretty seems not the right word for it more like brutish

Seems they moved towards Active Radar Homing/HTK with BUK-M3

HTK would suggest DACT, is that so?

What about the damage the rebels are inflicting on Syrian armour with the ToW systems that have been supplied by the US and Saudi.
According to an op-ed I read the Western press is presenting a different picture showing scorched tanks that Russia supplied.

Now he doesn’t say when these tanks were delivered whether recent or not. Having read this guy he can be disingenuous at times and can present it in a way that suggests it was the recent delivery of armoured vehicles.

Anyway, I haven’t seen on the BBC footage of burned out Russian supplied Syrian tanks.

Also I don’t know how complex ToW is to learn to operate.

Important to note that there are several version of TOW too. E.g. BGM-71E (TOW 2A) penetrates 900mm RHA behind ERA, then you have the top attack variant (BGM-71F/TWO 2B) with an even larger warhead. Now all we know is that Saudi Arabia supplied them to the rebels and were immediately re-stocked by the US with TOW 2A and TOW 2B. So potentially the rebels could have those variants, which is bad news, because very few tanks would hold out against a TOW 2B top attack, if any, especially behind the turret. Only an active kill system would stop it.

While I can understand how this ‘black and white’ simplification of the world certainly makes it easier to comprehend complex situations, I think it’s also very dangerous and easily abused (e.g. the invasion of Iraq).

Can’t see how that’s remotely similar, in fact trying to topple Assad, would be a repeat of this mistakes made in Iraq… and Libya.

Meanwhile, it would seem that stupidity has no limit for Qataris:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/20/can-manpads-be-controlled-in-syria.html

Can MANPADS Be Controlled in Syria?

Theoretically, yes, but it’s an untested — and highly dangerous — proposition.
In recent weeks, Syrian opposition groups have renewed calls for the United States and other countries to supply man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) to Syria’s beleaguered rebel forces. Senator John McCain has proven a lone voice in advocating for the provision of MANPADS to American –trained rebel forces in what he openly describes as a prospective replay of Washington’s covert war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Russian media have highlighted some of the many dissenting expert opinions.

Other states may not be quite as cautious, however. Qatar is believed to have delivered Chinese FN-6 MANPADS to Syrian rebel groups. Several of these have since been acquired by the Islamic State. Saudi Arabia, which has increased arms shipments to the Free Syrian Army in response to the Russian intervention, reportedly “hasn’t ruled out” supplying these advanced surface-to-air systems.

The Grey is ISIS.

The green “Al-Nusra”- so they just lumped all the anti-Syrian government forces right there and called it a day.

Purple is Islamic Front.

The FSA is in the light blue 😀 .

Just to add, the creamy/orange colour at the top of map is Kurdish and we know how Turkey loves them.

It is but the combat radius is stated at 720km at Mach 2.35 and 1,400km at Mach 0.85 but the canopy issue limited speed to Mach 1.5 according to Page 34 of Combat Aircraft July 2015.

Which is a correct grouping, since Al Nusra is a terrorist organisation, hence you can’t arm or support them without arming and supporting terrorists. Surely that should be obvious.