Don’t forget the massive advantage the flanker gets with its incredible endurance, turning, burning and lockbreaking requires plenty of gas. Further, it can dictate when to pursue of exit the fight at will, not so for the bug. the avionics might offer the bug some marginal advantages at present, but the flanker continues to get updates as well. An Irbis or AESA equipped flanker with TVC, higher thrust engines etc, will make it seriously difficult if not impossible for all other gen 4, 4.5 birds. Only the 5th gen types have clear advantages over the super flankers and at that only the F-22. JMT

USS.

That’s what I mean.

Even combat radius is one important flight regime biased in favor of the Flanker family.

TVC enhances the O/A maneuverability of the aircraft, enabling the pilot to pull tighter high-G turns without bleeding off airspeed. The NPO Saturn AL-31 family of turbofans (equivalent to PW F100 / GE F110) has more O/A thrust than the GE F414.

Comparison of Superbug vs. Flanker

The lack of TVC is of little concern. The Superhornet has excellent nose pointing ability without TVC, as well as better avionics. With both aircraft having helmet sights and HOBS missiles, a WVR scenario would likely be a mutual kill scenario.

First shot, you survive.

But TVC helps in dodging such high-G WVR AAMs so you could live to fire off another one.

No dogfighting missile has 100% PK.

That does not make the price irrelevant. The sum of money is fixed. Higher prices mean Israel gets less for that money.

Discounts.

Anyway, there have been some disagreements over the avionics systems maintenance process.

The U.S. government has not allowed the Israeli Air Force to repair the avionics systems, fearing it would reveal the manufacturing processes to them, but the Israeli Air Force says how can it repair them during a conflict?

The Russian Far East is one ideal theater of deployment for the first PAK FA-equipped VVS fighter regiment, in case the JASDF manages to procure Gen 5 F-22J Japanese Raptors.

The Caucasus is another ideal theater of deployment, in case the USAF wants to establish air superiority with a squadron of Raptors over Georgia (the former Soviet republic, not the U.S. state) the next time a limited war erupts between Russia and Georgia.

A third theater of deployment, albeit a highly destabilizing and intimidating one, is in Syria, as a game of big brother protecting little brother against the Israelis. The IDF/AF brass be begging for procurement of F-22I Israeli Raptors as a ‘countermeasure’.

And finally, a sabre-rattling theater of operation, in the portion of the Russian Far East near the Bering Strait, is where a PAK FA regiment would be based which it would launch an attack on Alaska.

Or Iranian…

You meant the USS Vincennes (CG-49) downing Iran Air Flight 655 over the Strait of Hormuz on July 3, 1988.

I would find it very surprising if there were none incidents of friendly fire in what seemed like a very chaotic conflict where both sides deployed similar hardware. I know about one downed Su-25 on 11 august by “friendly” MANPAD. If there are 2 downed by friendly fire, that does not mean that the Russians have the habit to destroy their own planes.

Friendly fire?

No wonder a Russian Su-25 Frogfoot can easily be destroyed by a Georgian one. IIRC, Georgian Su-25s destroyed the aircraft assembly plant they were built in!

The F/A-XX should be capable of:

Dogfighting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0FmWSmIJ0M

Wild Weasel SEAD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTkPzcTUFIA