Teething problems are nothing out of the ordinary. If they are fixed. However, airbus companies don’t fix anything. Let’s take Eurocopter, pardon, Airbus helicopters as example. Whenever the Bundeswehr reports a problem, it works like this:
1. deny, that there is a problem
2. blame it on user error
3. demand lowered design specs
4. demand more money
5. to be sure, blame it on user error again (soldiers are idiots by default !)
6. claim it will be fixed with the next software release (eventually)
7. demand more money

/rant off
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Considering that Lockheed Martin has achieved the highest profits immaginable with the approach quoted above, it should not surprise anyone that their competitors try the same.

The Rafale (and Eurofighter) are still unproven in a proper warfighting scenario.

Theis is even more the case for the F-22 that has not seen any use yet

Iraqi schizophrenic government is in dire need of recovering its military capabilities to keep the country together .

putting food in peoples stomach may be a better approach than wasting money on fighting machines

6. regardless if you accept it or not, Most of the major airplane makers have accepted that the current trend for what WE call a 5th generation fighter revolves around stealth as its defining feature. If the builders of the planes follow the trend, then who are you to tell them wrong?

Are builders following the trend? or one in particular? Who besides LM is frequently using that term?

1. Lethality: Is the aircraft lethal, is it a danger to a stock 4th generation aircraft? whats is its weapons load in stealth Mode? rank 1-10

2. Sensors: what do we know about the tech base behind the sensors? Does the company have a track records of cutting edge sensor tech.
Rank 1-10

3. Engine tech/speed: simply Put if the engine doesn’t work the plane will become a dog. reliability , top speed, performance and track record all come into play here. Whats the T/W ratio. and in some cases what level of fuel does the plane have to haul to be a 1:1 aircraft. Can the plane super-cruise.
what are you predictions on engine track records?

4. Weapons available: A advanced plane with 70s era weapons would be a bust. what kind of missile types will be employed?

5. over all stealth design: Does the plane follow mutually agreed LO design trends? are the engine blades showing? Does its shaping indicate a Bow tie radar signature? are the weapons carried primarily externally?

A very good question but hard to answer.

I always struggle with the definition of the 5th (or any other) generation of fighters.

What determines 5th generation and what distinguishes a fifth generation from anything that was built before?

it appears to me that any sensor, any weapon, any engine can be built in any given (modified for the purpose) airplane design.

It appears to me that we have apparent generations of operational fighter planes based on major aqcuisition programs of the military while technology advances much more gradually and evolutionary.

Sometimes, technology makes a drastic step forward making all previous designs totally outdated. WW I wooden planes compared to planes largely made of metal in WW II, jet engines compared to conventional ones…

But fior the jet fighter generations, its not clear cut and i don’t know how where to draw the generation lines in between designs.

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I only know that the f-15 has never been beaten in real combat.

whatever stories are told about trainings, i don’t believe that SU-27 can beat the F-15 in real life combat and that’s what counts

I see that a recent insurgent attack managed to destry six AV-8Bs at a Marine forward operating base. Hope they have better security when the F-35B is deployed.

The significant thing here is that insurgents managed to enter a major military compound and destroy important assets before being killed.

It is irrelvant that they destroyed AV-8, it could have been anything else (eg. Apaches) that was readily available.

this is not a pro or contra F-35B issue. If f-35A, or C, or F-15 or… would have been in that situation it would have been the same

But it is quite funny that any event, ANY event, is used to justify or diminish the value of the F-35. Sooner or later somebody is going to make an undeniable link between the F-35 and a chimp poking in its nose in the London zoo