I hve seen this inlet shaping somewhere else :confused:

A close look at the nose shape (very rounded) makes me thing that IF this plane feel in the stealth class of aircraft, the Japanese hve mastered RCS design and computation.

its f-22 style inlet shaping.

the nose is faceted as seen in this full scale wooden mock up that was unveiled some years ago

no room for a bay unless its one slender one down the middle?

full sized variant and demonstrator lookalikethis

FINALY someone brings a little reality into this inane thread! The whole point of the thread demands just too much suspension of reality…………I guess I can get by the supposition that Russia (USSR) somehow maintains control of the Falklands (even that it maintains control of them after WW1 wich would be bizzare indeed) and post WW2 it still has them. OK.
What does Soviet Union DO with them? Have they remained a stagnant backwaterfishing/wheather station? Or have “colonists” been sent down? If its the “colonist” route then there will probably be a military presence on the islands, and then that changes the ENTIRE ballgame down South America way. For starters, the US would maintain a sizable naval presence down there……in fact there would be a very good chance that US forces would be based in Argentina. The Argentine military would be much better equiped than was the case against UK. I think we could very well see an Argentine AF equiped with F-4s and Buccanears. Interesting.
For those that seemed to love bringing up the Soviets “access” to Angola……….you do remember that Angola was an active war zone at the time dont you? I doubt the SAAF would have approved of Soviet stratigic bombers operating in that area. It would probably be safe to say that Reagan and Thatcher would disapprove also. The chances are high that any arms santions against South Africa would “go away” at that point.
the last thing I’d like to bring up is that people here are supposing that the Soviet Navy would be able to pull off something that it had NEVER done befor, and something that it was not designed to do, nor in all likelyhood even have the logistics capability of doing. The RN with its hundreds of years of experience had a very difficult time of it. The only experience in long range ops the Soviets could look back on was a Russian deployment in 1905 that didnt go too well for them.

you have a good point that everyone forgot. If the Soviets were down there, then the US would definitely be down there twerking to Argentina’s manhood.
bad luck for the Soviets, it won’t be a cakewalk then.
no south american grozny if there’s a bunch of Hawks and F-4s stationed down there

Forget Cuba, Angola is closer and does not require huge detours to avoid neutral parties’ sovereign airspace! The civil war raging there simultaneously might have been a nuisance though.

hey baby you are right
Angola to Folklendskie ostrova = 7700 km
Cuba to Folklendskie ostrova = 8400 km (this is a straight line going through other airspaces).

If flying from Angola, the Bear can nearly make a round trip un-ruefuelled to Folklendskie ostrova and carpet bomb the island before going back.