No way. Much more a maneuverable, BVR missiles with longer range, longer ranged radar, IRST ( plus HMS and R-73 for WarPac). One generation ahead in A-A compared to F1 really. As for the growth potential , look at the 9.12 from the eighties and looks at what’s built now, the Ks, the Ms… 🙂

As for the F-22, i’m pretty sure from day one of it’s selection ( and even before) everybody from Europe to Russia , China etc. asked themselves ” right , how do we kill it”. I cannot believe for one second that in 20 years the inferior europeans and especially russians and even chinese just had no chance ( because they’re backward and/or inferior , of course) of developing their technology to counter effectively the main advantage of the F-22 ( stealth), the bestest and the goodest fighter ever that will never ever be even remotely challenged. And LM is always right, obviously.

F-22 and 35 are one trick ponies imho. I can’t believe for one second that all these new fancy AESA’s and PESA’s for the canards, russian fighters and even the chinese, ( in many cases coupled with advanced IRST and DAS systems) do not have a robust capability against stealth targets. Even if for instance the 22 can detect it’s oponents from farther away, if said oponent push their active and passive detection capabilities far enough to significantly degrade the value of stealth, then (at least techologically speaking) the 22 and 35 (especially) will get into trouble rather more often than LM would like us to believe.

Some peoples said repeatedly that for instance putting latest gen missiles and radar into aircraft like F-4 or even MiG-21 brings them in many respects in the same ballpark as the contemporaray 4th gen in regards to their capabilities (while still being outclassed in the areas where there has been a quantum leap, like flight performance, range , payload etc.).

Same as with the 22. It may be more powerful and have a wider flight envelope (supercruise?) compared to the likes of the canards (or so they say), but if you fit them with contemporary avionics, missiles and systems (especially anti-stealth tailored systems), that much trumpeted “dominance” will exist only on paper. 🙂

I’m not even talking about J-20 or T-50 as they are effectively of the same generation. (if not more advanced in some ways)

My 2 cents.

Su-35S 01
http://russianplanes.net/id81122

Is it me of they took the IRST off? Or it’s just some sort of cover on the transparency ?

I can’t tell what country you’re from, but in America there are things called elections.
That makes any pre-emptive strike any time soon very unlikely.

Now if Iran makes good on its recent threat to attack US forces, all bets are off.

Anyway , i’ve deleted my reply , don’t wanna get warned for another off-topic , but i’m pretty sure you know what i’ll say mate. Something not terribly nice at this Amuri-kah of yours. But i’m sure you know that already.:D

Aerodinamic/maneuvering /AOA testing. But surely you already know that.:p

Btw , it also has some dumb bombs on the rear hardpoint between the engines.

Yes, things been strangely quiet regarding Iran lately. Where did i read a piece somewhere to the effect “all will be ready for an attack in early summer”. This deceiving calm is not forestalling anything good. Probably the US led attack is due to start very soon.:(

So…what are we looking at here? Is this 51, or maybe they modified T-50-0 (KPO) with the IRST mock-up and a canopy?

( T-50 knowledgeable folks know that the initial images of T-50-0 shows it without an IRST mock-up, and without a canopy )

Via Comet @aviaforum

So what would you suggest, hiding this career choice topic because of …what? Some peoples who don’t like it? The “young and impressionable” must be presented with a honest image of what choices are ahead, their pros and cons, in such a manner that in the end, they can make a choice all by themselves.
This is not the victorian era ( speaking of the UK) , and even so, there’s far too much prejudice and narrowmindness prevalent anyway. And this is one of the most liberal countries in the world ( imo at least) , imagine how bad is in other places.