Thanks for the info qwerty!

PII, I havent seen a pic with Sidewinders loaded on the innermost pylons. It would make sense though.

I was thinking 50-60% internal fuel with the rest in weapons, somewhat an air defence patrol.

I see, its just that I dont usually add internal fuel to the payload.

I thought perhaps the Super Hornet might have a good chance at it? ONe under the belly?

The largest SH store is the 480 gallon tank which is maybe about 1600kg, so I dont think so.

F-16 is about the same, with two hardpoints stressed for 1590 kg at a maximum of 5.5g

The F-16 has 4 heavy stations with the inner wing pylons capable of carrying the 600gal tanks.

The early MiG-29 used a similar configuration to the F-15 and MiG-25, and this was because the F-15 and MiG-25 are not as different as you think, both fighters are basicly the same aerodynamic configuration, and both designs have been tailored to execute different missions due to difference in technology, while the MiG-25 is a Mid 1960s aircraft the F-15 is an early 1970s aircraft the difference in technology made them different in capabilities.

Its rather the different requirements.
And I’m pretty sure the MiG-25 and the F-15 have quite different airfoils.

the MiG-25 is built mostly of steel, the F-15 uses mainly titanium and aluminun, Since the MiG-25 has a heavier airframe it has a worst thrust to weight ratio even when both aircraft have engines with the same yield.

If fhe MiG-25 needed a good twr, it would have it.

Boyd theories would not have been put in to practice if the F-15 would had been built mainly of steel.

F-16?
The F-15 wouldnt have been built with steel because that would result in a bad air superiority fighter.

however the MiG-31 has better missiles than the F-15 and has a sustained Mach 2.3 capability, that is enough to say the MiG-31 can kill F-15s

So what, the Harrier has a sustained Mach ~0.9 speed and thats enough to kill an F-15. And saying the missiles of the MiG-31 are better than the F-15 is a broad statement.

It depends on, what the inlet-system does allow, when coating is no limiting factor. 90% of the available thrust comes from the inlet- outlet-system at speeds of Mach 2+.

And that inlet system is optimized for Mach 1.5, not for subsonic speeds like other fixed inlets. Coupled with near turbojet engines and it gets interesting.
1600mph doesnt sound bad.

F-22: 14-15ton

Its more like 18+ tons.
6-8 internal missiles plus all the gizmos requires an F-35 sized airframe. With two engines probably a bit more, so 13-14 tons is the minimum imho.
The proposed engines deliver around 14 tons of thrust which gives a good indication of empty weight.

Only if you want to cruise there for extended periods. An aluminum airframe will handle brief excursions of a couple minutes or so up to much higher than Mach 2 without issue.

I’d say aluminium is not the limiting factor for the F-22 and probably not for the PAK-FA.
I really wonder how fast the Raptor could go… 😎

But how about Thrust Vectoring? F-22 is probably more agile over more of the low speed/WVR envelope.

Likely, but theres no need for the EF to enter the fight at low speed.
At medium speed (i.e. high subsonic), the TVC doesnt help much.

And how much can Typhoon exploit ASRAAM’s capabilities without a helmet?

Its IIR seeker head gives it better chances to achieve a lock, esp. when fired in a head-on engagement. It has also more range and is more resistant to countermeasures.
But when the need arises, I’m sure the Raptor would get the X-Sidewinder in no time (without helmet of course).

Who has the better DASS in this particular environment?

EF obviously 😀
But this area is highly speculative anyway.

Meh, just to spite the nay-sayers, here’s the fantastic mock-up glanini posted sometime ago in a thread on Japan and the Typhoon.

Looks nice, but the Pirate is on the wrong side.
Also, it seems they want a fighter so that beautiful blue camo is more likely to be more greyish. 🙁
Further, the EF offers little over what Japan already has. If they chose a non-stealthy fighter, it should be the F-2 imho (or the F-15 of course 😀 )