I think there is some naivety in this thread. The new cold war is in full swing and the information warfare its as intense as ever. This creeps into military forums like this. One side truly believes its side of the story and vise versa. This environment is not that easy to police.

Its always the Pak Fa thread getting deleted. It gets deleted because some people post things of bad taste which sets off the Russia supporters. It never fails. Just recently, someone posted a Pak Fa pic that showed it with dual hardpoints on it for testing. Along came one of the usual suspects who said “welcome to 1960”. It would probably last as long as the F-35 thread without the flippant and bad spirited comments from a few.

About JSR. His posts are very jingoistic and they rub ppl the wrong way. But he doesn’t break the rules. Berkut was a jerk.

China should inquire about the Pak Fa.

The Japanese 5 gen tech demonstrator is so bland and boring to look at. It has shades of the Boeing X-35. It is not sleek.

given the Swiss operate the Hornet and the F-5 I think we can safely say the Swiss are quite comfortable with operating american fighter aircraft…

The F-35 is in a different category than the F-18. It has special export and modification restrictions and political strings attached which is why I am brining this up.

Swiss and Finns have been operating an American fighter type for about two decades now.

Malaysia and Taiwan operate US fighters too and they don’t have a military alliance. The F-35 is in a different category as per state dept.

Neutral European countries: Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Ireland.

Clearly the Gripen is a natural and the most appropriate choice for Switzerland. There isn’t one neural non aligned country that is getting F-35’s. If the Swiss wanted to stick to this long held tradition, then they shouldn’t but the F-35. Because buying F-35’s is a defacto military alliance with the USA.

^ Yeah that’s not a good enough source.

^ I don’t recall seeing anything about the 2 seater requirement being off.

Russia agreed to the demand of the Indian Air force that it must be a two-seater fighter.[58] The Indian version will be a two-seater that will, “accommodate one pilot and a co-pilot who will function as a weapon systems operator (WSO).”[38]