Guys, I didn’t claim to be an expert in this field. I consider you to be………..well, more or less.

A few of you are getting a bit off the mark. Obviously it is not practical for a country like Iran to
have 6,000 pilots. Those days are over with the Shah being gone.

The question was if there were to be just one (1) plane. So far there have been 2 really good
answers, F-22 and SU-34 (Iranically ^_^ both answers are from SOC)

I just wonder, having ruled out F-22, if SU-34 is in fact the best in the SU series. Isn’t SU-34 a
F/B Jet? It has a low ceiling in today’s standard and not very fast in today’s standard.

Considering that whatever is picked has to go agaist F-22, F-15, F-16 and Eurofighter,
wouldn’t SU-35 or its twin SU-37 be the best choice?

For the Su-37 to be twice as fast as the EF-2000, it’d have to have a speed of at least Mach 4. Which it doesn’t.

Anyway.

If you want an operational plane, you can’t very well pick either the Su-37 (none exist anymore since Bort 711 crashed) or the Su-47 (as only one unarmed technology demonstrator exists).

Based on your question, you seem to want an air superiority type, so I’d have to go with the F-22A, as it offers stealth, supercruise, and agility. Does that automatically qualify the F-22A as the best and only choice? Of course not. But based on your question and your criteria, that’s the best answer I can come up with as price wasn’t listed as a factor.

Does that settle the issue? F-22A is the one.

So, a country that can purchase the plane (I mean the US friendly countries) can set aside just
about all of its inventory and invest on this one plane? Or is that a bad Idea?

As for countries that are not US friendly, like………..hell I don’t know………..Iran. What choices
do they have? And, if you were to pick for them, then, which one?

Wouldn’t that brings the choice down to Russia, China and …………I don’t know who else has anything worth investing.

Iranians don’t have any money problems, so the quantity wouldn’t be a prob.

How many ALCM’s brimstones and anti-radiation missiles does the F-22 carry? you obviously didnt read the question.

In no way I am placing the F-22 on the top of the list. Just that as far as the Euro is concerned, its own web site accepts the superiority of the F-22. I don’t.

I tend to go with the Russians. Whether it be Su-47 or even better SU-37.

There is no such animal as a “best” aircraft in anything…..

Why not? There is the SU-47.

*cough* historic forum *ahem*

I realised that AFTER posting. Any way to move the thread before more humiliation?