The US carriers are indeed vulnerable, because

1-The US Navy is obliged to maintain a continuous presence around the world, so with its scattered carriers it is not capable of concentrating its overwhelming numbers rapidly anywhere ..6 fleets thousands miles apart .

2-As fleet protection fighter the SH is massively inferior to Super Tomcat armed with 6 heavy Phoenix. The performance the Super Hornet gives up to make it a first class ground attack makes it unsuitable to fulfill the role vacated by the Tomcat. As a result, the US Navy lacks a real A2A fighter and will not have an equivalent aircraft to carry out the A2A role until F-35gets airborne. US Navy pilots were extremely impressed with the Rafales Flight Control System which gives better carrier landing performance than any other aircraft and its A2A capability vis-a-vis the SH . The result is that US NAVY could be outlclassed by enemies operating RAFALE or TYPHOON or SU-30 Type of 4 Gen aircrafts.

Without an efficient A2A fighter,the carriers are vulnerable.

I doubt the situation will get any better for USN in A2A warfare when the F-35C gets airborne. They only factor they can count on is numbers, no one CBG will actually go to real war alone. The US deployed six in the first Gulf War plus LHAs plus allied. On Allied Force they deployed two plus 1 LHD plus 3 allied. Not to mention land based USAF assets that will always be in some proximity.

Otherwise I agree with everything you said. The Tomcat was never replaced IMHO, just substituted.

– F 14 radar was more powerfull than Flanker one; not to mention the capabilkity;

No, it was not.

– HMD was not “unprecedented” the first operational HMS was fileded on US Navy F 4 Phantom 10 years before Su 27;

No, it was not; the US Navy never adopted it, it was too primitive. The first US operational HMS was in Army’s Apaches. Check your sources.

Still, even if I take your claim for granted, why no other later fighter did not adopt any HMS system untill JHMCS appeared? Tres bizzare, no?

– I don’t know how on earth some posters think that the Russians invented the IRTS? The first IRST was on F 101 “Voodoo” in 1962. All the USAF fighters un til F 4 (F 101, F 102, F 106, F 4) and all the US Navy Fighters until F 14 (F8, F4, F14) had IRSTs. Tht’s ~ 10,000 of them iin total. F4 alone was built in over 5,500 exemplaries and all had IRST.

Wrong again, the first IRST was adopted even before (again by US aircraft). But guess what? None was adopted on a serious scale. Even today, no US fighters have IRST systems, only in pod form. Strange, don’t you think?

Check your sources for crying out loud, even the Japanese in WWII used primitive IRST systems in the last year of the war.

‘epilot’ means data link? or the plane can be flown with out pilot ie remotely? :confused:

Nobody knows for sure and Sukhoi is not exactly eager to tell. My guess that it’s some sort of application to ease the pilot’s workload. Remote flight is higly unlikely IMHO.

Makes a huge difference. Today, you can do more (better power, cooling, CPU processing, etc), for much less ($$)…

Right, in theory anyway. In practice, the F-22, despite incorporating electronics architecture of the nineties, in 2010 and for many more years to come, is the most fearsome fighter worldwide. So it makes a difference, but not a huge one.

For close range, the R-77 will lack a high turn rate via thrust vectoring nozzles, most likely.

Sure, but it could be used, right? Somewhat like the french MICA IR. After all, it is AFAIK one of the most manuevrable medium range missiles, able to take out high G manuevering targets, thanks to its fins.

As for the side bays . . . here’s the speculation:

(Rumor is, they may even have rear-firing missiles!)

[*IMG]http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/6065/pakfasidebays.jpg%5B/IMG]

I’ve seen this, I even seen one cutaway with a missile diagram on it, but I don’t know, I just don’t buy it… Which makes me think that some part of the central bays will be reserved for dogfighters…

I think that US is more worried about the Chinese JXX than the Russian PAK-FA. Whith a GNP 4 times the Russian one, who is going to afford more 5th gen fighters?

While this is largely true for the Chinese, the production line of the Raptor will be discontinued in the near future. When will the Chinese begin to field meaningful numbers of J-XXs? I’d wager no sooner than 2023-2025 for the first operational sqns with fully developed airframes.

Called a ‘land’ version of the F-18, it really was nothing more than a tarted up Northrop YF-17 ‘Cobra’ airframe (it bore ONLY a passing resemblance to the later F/A-18). Northrop pitched and hunted high and low for a buyer, but after losing out to the YF-16, they really were lost until they teamed with McD-D to create the F/A-18 ‘Hornet’ for the USN.

Here’s a shot of it (YF-17/F-18L) in French Armee de l’Air colours…

Yes, it has been discussed sometimes in the past too. Here are the serials and some more pics from the museums…

Nice pic though, thanks for sharing. It was actually painted in many potential customers’ colours, but I must say I was neither aware nor expecting AdA to be on the list…

HEER is German Army, but I don’t recognise the insignia between the serial number.
Czech?

No, IAC – Irish Air Corps 🙂

Ah, there we go again.
If US used 15 years on the Raptor. It automaticly means Russia must use the same.

No, it doesn’t mean that, neither automatically nor necessarily, but it’s the only credible standpoint for a “fifth gen stealth fighter” available. If you ask me, I believe the Russian can complete the PAK FA’s development sooner, but that’s only if everything goes well and no problems arise. Will it be the case? Maybe, maybe not. Probably not, most development project these days face too many difficulties…

F-22A and T-50 are not compareble on many accounts.
Heck, Russkies can push the T-50 into service with an engine doing 15+ if there are heavy delays on that designatated new engine core.

Thanks

That still doesn’t change the time figure though. They have to finish with the development, set up an assemply line, receive their first sqn, learn how to fly the fighters and then *perhaps* make some available for international excercises, which I doubt they will. The Indians will take even more time than that. The T-10 first flew in 1977 and the Indians’ first visit to red flag was in 2008, 30 years later and the Indians received their first MKIs in the nineties. So yes, at least half of that, 15 years is the most optimistic we can possibly hope for seeing some PAK FAs at Red Flag.