It just a question of what we mean with outdated when we talk about technologies.

Let’s say that it doesn’t mean obsolete or inferior in combat, just that any item whose design has been finalized a pair of decades ago would show component of the same age and respond, in case of a military things, to requisites that was fixed even earlier.
Still it can show certain performances that planes built today but intended for a different role cannot just cope with.
F-22 and MiG-31 are both a fine example of planes that in their own niche (that Paralay was substantially correct to point out as quite similar between the two) still have not rivals between their more modern companions.

Yes, believe it or not is that is what they would try to get with the Mig-41 program.
The pilot-less thing is something that is envisaged for future Su-57 version also, so if I can understand your skepticism (that I partially share) about the concrete feasibility of such requirements, I didn’t understand why you look so surprised by something that was put out by almost a decade.
Almost they have a clear objective and are putting forth a path to get where they want to go while on the other side of Atlantic they have neither a beginning of a preliminary idea about what they want to achieve.
So let’s talk about what will be or not the 6 gen when they would get the fog out of their heads, ok?

@SpudmanWP

Don’t get the reason of such a criticism.
Let’s say, given that the article is Mikoian-Gurevic centered, that they are probably talking about the so called Mig-41 whose they sell as able to fly faster than 4 mach, reach near-mesosphere quotes and being such smarter to need not a pilot anymore.

Now, i didn’t know it this would qualify as 6 gen or not in your own but in my book it would be filed under AWESOME the same, regardless of the patch you stick on it, (if they get to do it, obviously).

That’s is for a good reason: difference between the two technologies final performance is minimal ( Su-35’s Pesa has some lateral lobes loss but has initial greater energy output of any operative radar) but given that RF source(s) and radiant elements are separated they can be put on a mobile plate to enlarge the FoW, something that when it come to AESA with their solidarly attached module is actually not yet operatively deployed.

All those overinflated about AESA superiority actually comes from US that passed directly from conventional radar to AESA on their fighters, in reality the PESA can also do almost everything that AESA can.

Let’s get a cut about conspirationist theories.
10.000 $ instead of 1200$, not a great expense anyway for a coalition of terrorist group financed by gulf monarchies.
KGB itself admitted the can be bought on internet and modified on field, so no needs to keep on bickering on secondary thing.

P-8 was gathering information?
Well, coincidence or not, the important thing is that now there is a full gift box of very bad news for US military planners (or better said military-industrial complex sales representative) wrapped in Alupack and tied with scarlet ribbons for them to take back home.

Even in their actual form the Pantsirs can deal with their fabled swarm attacks, let’s imagine when the new version of it, specifically intended to deal with them (double faced AESA, 40 km missile range, Hermes self guidance interceptor, four-pack tube for mini e micro UAV) would began to be mass-produced.

So it seems that issues sprung from them being used in certain extreme weather conditions: being a multinational programme (and a relevant commercial success) it can surely be that some peculiar scenarios, like a 20° ship deck rolls, were just not taken into consideration.
Also because forecasting moisture problems for a Netherland’s helo in the carribeans would have been a feat also for Nostradamus…

Certainly, if you would have to designate an Yaysayer Lead Nation, we Italians are the natural candidate for it.

No main problem ever detected, all deliveries in the correct timing, performance surpassing several requisites, first ones to declare them (TTH version)operative (and this directly in Afghanistan!) although having received them after Germany and France.
So, if your own ones are giving you problems you can freely give the poor puppies to us, at a simbolic price obviously!

@ ink

Seems to me that the CEP is actually proven not to be enough to do the job seeing as the Backfires regularly dump their entire payload on a single target. Imagine if, instead of flying all that way to take out a single target, they could drop single bombs on, say, six different targets but with a much higher likelihood of success.

The only explanation I can think of that explains the way things are done now is that the Russians are keen to get rid of old stocks of dumb bombs… So, less to do with combat efficiency and pilot safety and more to do with keeping the operation cheap as chips. Not saying there’s anything wrong with that, just pointing out that Glonass-guided bombs are also a neat way to get things done and I’m surprised they haven’t at least played around/demonstrated/experimented with that as an option.

Not, in several occasion there is evidence that Backfires were able to drop their load on more than a single target. Scroll back several pages and you would found them
It occurred quite that a plane of a formation used a part of its load to engage nearby secondary targets, not just the main one.
Backfires were and are used to engage wide area targets (DYO refineries, industrial facilities, repair plants headquarters, barracks and training camps but probably the most iconic were the kilometer long queues of trucks smuggling oil from ISIS held territory), when they need instead to destroy a single building they used other weapons/planes.
How said Tu-22 wih SVP-24 were still enough precise to engage point sized targets, so not a such difference exist.
Kh-500kr and KAB500l they used a lot but for tactical engagement, GLONASS guided ones they used at the beginning from Su-34 operating akin the coalitions planes with Jdams in long range attacks deep inside enemy territories but at the end they seem to have considered that in this kind of missions Kalibr for precision strikes and Backfires for wide area saturation are better options.