It might have poor availability by USAF standards – but by other countries’ standards it could be quite good – what are the availability rates of RAF and Luftwaffe Typhoons in the last few years?

187 could be considered a good production rate – how many Rafales have been delivered to the French air force in the last 20 years – or Su 34, Su-35 to the RuAF?

Ok. let’s try:
Usa/F-22A 324,720,729 : 187 compared to the medium between (D)82.175.700:140+(UK)64.595.000:160 +(I)60.665.551:96+ (ESP)46.439.864:73 for Typhoon. France/Rafale 66.736.000/135 atm.
Russia have begun to produce the plane you mention just in the last 5/6 years, so let’s make calculation when their own production would be concluded.

Marellogo, do you know the availability rate of the F-22, or how it compares to the F-15, or Typhoon for that matter? The F-22’s is neither a white elephant or a hangar queen. You keep on expounding on the idea that the USAF cancelled the F-22 because of some percieved failing. Robert Gates moved to cancel the program with the backing of the administration. It was done in spite of force requirements and recommendations of the USAF. This has been explained to you by several posters on several occasions. Your hypothesis does not stand up to scrutiny based upon the known aspects of the F-22 program.

I know that it’s availability has been officially certified as the lowest of all USA fighters even being the most recent one.
I know that they required 700 items and get 187 in the end, that’s is certainly always better that asking 32 and getting 3 but I would hardly call it a success the same.
I know that they have been designed as an offensive air superiority plane and ended up to be based in US territory only.
I thought it would be a sostitute for F-15 Eagle and instead they would stay in service almost until 2025 but with all probability even after that…

You are however right, there is not anything wrong with it, all this happened despite USAF desires so not their fault at all, let’s blame that little obnoxious thing called reality instead.

That’s what happens when you are the largest fighter program in history (in $s) from a country that is the most open about it’s acquisition process.

Having massive amount of info available means that there is much to talk about.

Issue is not about quantity of debate but about its proper location : if in a thread 4 pages long one and an half went off topic meant something went out of control.
I know that it would be the only fighter aircraft that would be produced in the western emysphere in the next decade and an half but we are nearing monomania there.

New Engines, Weapons for Russian Stealth Fighter

Sooo, are OFZAB-500 and ODAB -500PVM guided?

Because you know, we have this little bet left on the fact that also PAK-FA would keep to use not guided ordnances…

It’s a political need for a big victory by the regime. What contradicts you are the repeated attempts by the regime forces from all 4 directions, but apart from some limited gains in the north and west, they didn’t amount to much yet.

Rebels have actually advanced far more in their counteroffensive on the West Aleppo by using the VBIED’s to great effect apparently.

are you talking about the ongoing one ot the former? Because this one it seems , until now almost, not such a big feat.
And the Regime advance in North eastern part of Aleppo were blitzing fast when compared to the usual standard there: Handarat refugee camp, all the Castello road to Al Jaundoul roundabout were great achievements, after this the advance stalled also for political reasons.
In the meantime all eyes are in Aleppo, places like Daraaya, Mohadamieh, Tel Kurdi in Damascus Ghoutas , Al Waer district in Homs have surrendered.

The rebel’s are just now renewing their offensive on West Aleppo; the first effort didn’t get very far (apart from taking Al-Assad neighborhood and minor gains in the north part) and potentially the regime is preparing for another big push at taking the East Aleppo. The regime allied forces have also managed to revert a few rebel gains from the large offensive in the Hama countryside, but there’s still a large pocket remaining.

What’s more interesting are rumors of regime preparing to expand towards Al-Bab against IS before the Turkish supported FSA gets there.

You can keep track of such unconfirmed reports on a daily basis for instance here:

http://syria.liveuamap.com

The NEED to take east Aleppo is IMHO more an external observers assumption than a reality from field: once the Loyalist have secured Castello road and all the Northern part they can put it in stand-by and continue instead their offensives in other parts of Syria, above all from Aleppo itself both eastward towardAl-Bab (also they have not to take it , just bypass it and reach Manbji) and westward toward western Aleppo suburbs and Idlib province i.e. the real rebel strongholds.
And IMHO Russia wouldn’t do anything substantial until US election would be over.

I remember the MiG 1.44/1.42 was being called the “Raptor Killer” by the fanbois in the mid/late-90s. Armed with plasma-stealth, it’ll absolutely destroy the Raptor.

Not sure whether the MiG-29 is over-hyped, but it is a bit of an odd ball. Soviets had heavy long ranged fighters and interceptors in the Su-27 and MiG-31 but what role does the MiG-29 play? It should have been a MiG-21 replacement. Relatively cheap single engined fighter that can be produced in large quantities. MiG had projects like Ye-8, Project 33, etc, but the MiG-29 turned out to be a not so cheap medium sized flanker? :confused::confused:

Fulcrum and Flanker derived both by a common design that was in a second moment split in two, latter one a long range fighter, able to both covering Soviet Union vast territories than to escort Backfires on mission, while the Fulcrum (and NATO designation names were this time right into their respective missions) would have been the Frontal Aviation one.
Now, Frontal Aviation is something very peculiar of Soviet doctrine and have not any ecquivalent in the NATO one.
It was a very strict tactical thing, put under the operational command of ARMY’s Front (group of armies) commanders:eek::eek::eek:.
It was the MiG playground from The Mig-15 onward, simply, small, single mission A2A planes, produced in great numbers, getting a replacement and stored back when they would have reached a certain numbers of flight ours instead of going to a MLU.
Problem of MiG-29 was that it, although technically a very good plane, turned out not being worth the price: it was envisaged to cost about an half, both on acquisition than in maintaining than a Flanker but it failed in doing so, while a.t.c. the Flanker turned on to have the enormous design flexibility it has so being able to spawn out derivate planes covering all possible roles both of air force than PVO leaving out just a pair of very niche roles.
So after the fall of the Union they went to keep Sukhoi’s one, also because it turned out to be the one with the best export potential.
Fulcrum has actually had a comeback however, with the -K version but it is a very different thing now than it was originarly.
Now, frontal aviation still exist but the idea of a specific plane for it is gone forever, MiG-35 if adopted would be just a complement to the main line based of Flankers and what would come out from the PAK-FA.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/01/opinions/chinas-new-j-20-stealths-opinion/index.html

Should the US be worried?
In terms of a direct comparison with the US Air Force’s own stealth fighters — the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — the J-20 is undeniably less stealthy.
The forward-mounted canards, poorly shielded engines and underside vertical stabilizers all limit the amount that its radar cross section — which determines how visible the aircraft is to a radar — can be reduced.
China also has significantly less know-how in terms of radar-absorbent coatings compared with the United States. Most importantly, it is extremely unlikely that the J-20 is equipped with anything approaching the F-22’s and F-35’s sensor suite.

This is crucial because it is not only the fact that they are hard to detect on radar that makes the F-22 and F-35 so deadly, but also the unrivaled situational awareness that their sensor-fusion capabilities give to their pilots.
However, despite the fact that the J-20 almost certainly cannot match the radar-evading properties or situational-awareness capabilities of US-made stealth fighters, it does have several advantages over them.
First, due to its larger size it will carry significantly more internal fuel, so it will have a longer range and be less dependent on vulnerable aerial refueling tankers in the vast Asia-Pacific. It also has larger internal weapons bays than either the F-22 or F-35, so it will be able to carry larger, longer-range missiles or a greater load of standard air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions than either of the US designs.
Finally, the J-20 is almost certainly going to be produced in far larger numbers than the F-22 and potentially even the F-35 if Chinese defense spending continues on current trajectories in relation to the United States and its allies.

First , let’s cut this fairy tale of unrivalled situational awareness , please. With a fixed array AESA radar with just a +/- 60° degree scan area and in case of F-22 no IRST?
A limit of J-20, almost in the actual configuration, is IMHO the lack of TVC instead.