It’s not just about engines, the soviets did not have CAD when the SU-27 was designed and the PAK FA has internal weapons bay that in stealth mode reduces drag/increases range. The air frame shape of the F-35 was compromised to get a STOVL version for the marines which was not good for range .

So they reduced drag to half then? The main compromise on the F-35 is having bays large enough to fit 2,000lb bombs.

You’d be surprised how few countries have even half-modern Tor.

The pics show all we need to know- they are imitating the Tor-M2 with a very convincing fake, while claiming they have the real thing.

That remains to be seen, the report says otherwise. Aside from that, it’s pretty simple to fly over the ceiling of a Tor and the range isn’t great either, so the threat is limited anyway.

It came out in 1970 does not mean the technology behind is 1970. Soviet Union was not very efficient in implementation. They were using vacuum tubes for too long.

So they were deploying 1950s technology in the 1970s??? I suppose the MiG-29s were 1950s technology too? Face it, the links prove your statement to be a bare-faced lie.

The US have the advantage now but Russia and China are rebuilding their inventory. The number and quality of their planes will quickly increase. Note also that the US pilot training has decreased significantly in the last years, and aircraft availability is low on some airframes types. If the USAF avoids a fighter shortfall of hundreds of planes in 10 years, you can expect the readiness to be low for a lot of old planes.

That smells BS from LM. Several JAST and JSF proposal had canards. The Chinese could have built pretty much any airframe they would have wanted. And the J-20 is a polished Mig 1.44 only in the eyes of a LM fanboy.

At what rate? What per year rate have Su-35s or J-16s been built at? You’re imaging things are happening, or going to happen, that aren’t

And all those proposals were rejected. And again look at the canard and wing trailing edges, not parallel. Look at the nozzles, no serration. You don’t see the similarities with the 1.44?

So they were all expired?

They may not realise that the equipment they are buying is downgraded, having seen only the spec for the export version.

True – but it did give an insight into the S-400, which drew heavily on the design concepts and technology of the older system in order to reduce development costs.

As you say, it cannot. Also, it may give few clues, if any, on how the material is made. The US programme to refurbish nuclear warheads hit this problem. There was little recorded information on how a certain essential material (codenamed ‘Fogbank’) had been manufactured some decades ago, and the facilities used to manufacture it had been dismantled.

Surely every single person suggesting it constantly would promote enquiry?:D

It gives what an S-300 looks like on radar, which helps it be identified but the radars themselves and radar technology and modes may have changed, hardware and software, e.g. AESA? RAM/RAS too has likely changed dramatically since 1983, with an increasing ability to analyse and build materials on the nano-scale and the ability of supercomputers to provide a better understanding of what’s going on.

True about Fogbank but eventually they managed to improve on the original production method apparently. I wonder what the UK use in their warhead manufacture?

http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/padwp/pdfs/nwj2_09.pdf

Don’t forget to take into account that wages are a lot higher in western countries, and probably the highest in the US. So you can’t compare directly the expeditures of the US and Russia and China. Also it is not because you have a lot of money that you don’t waste a lot. When money is tight you spend more wisely the little you have.

The US is dominant now, but it may not last for ever. The competitors are developping weapons systems that are equivalent and sometimes better ( because the US is cancelling and delaying so many programs ), and their military budget, in particular in the case of China is increasing rapidly.

How and btw, concerning the canards, why did the naval F-23 proposal and the J-20 now have canards if it’s so catastrophic for stealth? I think you are drinking the LM kool aid…

Compare on PPP then. Compare in terms of number of aircraft.

http://www.globalfirepower.com/aircraft-total.asp
http://www.globalfirepower.com/aircraft-total-fighters.asp
http://www.globalfirepower.com/aircraft-total-attack-types.asp
http://www.globalfirepower.com/aircraft-helicopters-attack.asp

How many Su-35s has Russia got relative to the number of F-22s? How many J-16s? Not that that’s even a like for like comparison.

Which weapons systems are better? Where’s the evidence of equivalence? What is this based on?

Did the naval F-23 get built? Were the trailing edges of the canard and wing parallel? Why didn’t the F-23 have canards? There’s your answer. Not just LM cool aid, look at other stealth proposals, no canards. The J-20 is a polished MiG-1.44.

Oh okay, $600bn.

Compare it to say the RuAF. How many old planes in there? 180+ F-22s and several dozen F-35s – that’s more stealth fighters than most European nations have fighters in total. Also about 500 F-18E/Fs with AESA, which are hardly old, 100 EA-18Gs, several hundred Eagles with AESA too. How many cruise missiles? A few thousand maybe.

More a case of what they need relative to current threats. Right now, nobody else has stealth fighters, so job done. In 4 years maybe the first enemy stealth fighters will be entering service and then they’ll have probably several hundred F-35s with IRST and DAS, so again, requirement covered and enemy threat countered.

Err… everyone would have predicted that was the aim. How stealthy is it with those canards? Don’t see any other stealth fighter with them. Jet nozzles, non-stealth design. Rear of canards not aligned with rear of wings. PAK-FA – that IRST bubble on ts own has the frontal RCS of several hundred F-22s. What’s the point in an internal weapons bay when that’s on the outside of your aircraft? Non-aligned surfaces, those nozzles. I think it’s yet to be proven that they even are VLO. LO maybe.