Considering, that Su-34 AA armament and radar are no worse than that of Su-27SM, Su-34 is also very good aircraft for long range patrols.

Israeli strike in Syria and this crash are timely quite close together. Maybe F-16 was shot down by Sirian air defense and the lost later shown as crash in exercise over the sea (attack also happened from the sea side).

We have to take all this with reserve. But anyway amazing plane, specially its maneuvers in the air.

G-4 and J-22 are build in ex-SFRJ so they are near 30 years old. They were also used in Balkan wars so sooner or later they will be worn out. Yak-130 equipped with Bars-130 radar is good replacement for them. It have comparable speed with J-22 and good maneuverability. It could carry 3 t of ordinance on 9 hardpoints including smart weapons and AAMs. It is both trainer and CAS plane all in one.

Nonsens claim. Every real war between such opponents is an atomic war.

Of course. It’s about hypothetical conventional war between equal opponents.

Resurrection of Mig I-44 project?

In air to air , Rafale vs SU-35 is a very hard call …

In fact , it is a very very hard call … I ‘m not gonna debate about both fighters as we know them well enough I guess . In the end , it ‘s the weapon who does the killing even if it is the last cannon round . So , the real question is who ‘s the best survivor . Which plane has the better chance to survive the BVR engagement and the better chance to survive the WVR knight fight .

In BVR , I think the Sukhoi ‘s gonna have a hard time to score a kill , thanks to Rafale ‘s general awareness and defensive systems . Same difficulties for the Rafale to score a kill . But , the Su-35 Pilot has to keep in mind the IR Mica which is not easy to deal with .

WVR , the Rafale has to score real quick or it ‘s in trouble . By that , I mean that after few turns and verticals , the energy favors the Su-35 .
Anyway , both aircraft are deadly opponents .
Just my 2 cents …

Cheers .

Agree. But Su-35 have no worse defensive system as Spectra on Rafale. TVC give Su-35 excellent missile evading capabilities and that it also have medium range IR AAMs.

We compare heavy fighter 2008, with a light fighter in 1986, what do you expect?
Rafale has only one advantage in air combat, the pilots of the aircraft have killed people, first in Libya, now in Mali. The Su-35 pilots still did not kill anyone.

Su-35 was not in war yet, but Su-34 was. Don’t forget that 1 single Su-34 of two RuAF have in 2008, crippled Georgian air defense, which was the most modern up to now in actual wars and which have new Ukrainian ST-68 EW radars, BUK-M1 and Spyder SAMs. I think Su-35 is not worse than Su-34 in electronic warfare.