I don’t think this was meant to be a serious thread. For those who want to make it one … what are we debating here? Everyone acknowledges that B-52, Tu-95, H-6 continue to offer valued capabilities, of which cruise missile transport is one. Extending that to include AShM transport is … well, hardly an extension at all. It simply requires integrated operations with ISR assets to provide dynamic targeting information. Where is the controversy?

Obligatory‘s comment is perfectly on topic. If you want to bomb Iran, F-35 is ideal. If your interests lie elsewhere, the value proposition is less clear. Take Canada: top of the requirements list is air intercept, and slightly below that is hunting down cruise missiles. F-35 does not handle either of these tasks as well as even the far cheaper Gripen NG, let alone the more comporable Typhoon (or Raptor, MiG-31, Su-35, but those aren’t in the discussion) and yet does not offer the features that one would normally desire to offset such deficiencies, such as maturity, significantly lower acquisition and operating expenses, etc.

However, I think that taking the Typhoon as a symbol of European seems quite popular these days (although i cant grasp the logic)….

And a fitting symbol it is too. Endless potential undermined by limited thinking, a lack of commitment and narrow self-interest. Europe in a nutshell.

Similarly the F-35, with its disastrous conception and execution, coupled with the themes that surround it — e.g. steadfast refusal to acknowledge and account for fiscal realities — serves as a fitting symbol of American folly and decline.

I don’t understand the negativity of many posters towards JF-17. It is a modern, capable and inexpensive aircraft that can hold its own amongst its contemporaries in Gripen, Tejas, F/A-50 and Ching Kuo. And with continued development (WS-13, AESA, etc.) it will remain broadly competitive with future Gripen and Tejas developments.

The aircraft was too heavy, 14,5 tm empty, actually was a miracle that russians kept the mig23 weight at 10tm, for such fighter with that performance, mig 23s design and weight control was a quite good job.

I have always felt MiG-23 was an underrated aircraft.

Good to see this moving along. It’s a pity F-35 is sucking all the oxygen out of the room or we could really see what Super Hornet can do — and Typhoon for that matter.

being first mean you can be first to see how it work and then make change. it means j10b radar is more a pioneer

If this is so the Japanese must be ahead of everyone in AESA technology. Banzai!

Thinking of all the missed opportunities relating to Europe and Typhoon is enough to drive one to drink. But to posit KF-X as missed opportunity for Germany and Spain requires several other fantastical assumptions: namely of a Germany with a greater regard for military investment and development, and of a Spain that could afford to buy or develop anything — something which also comes back to Germany, oddly enough.