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The Gen 4++ vs the Gen 5 fighters
13 years ago
Well I was watching an old Dogfights, The future of Dogfights I think was the title, and it showed F-22s generally owning Gen 4+ fighters. But this was made several years ago, and the 4++ fighters are in development. These fighters are the Su-35BM, the F-15SE Silent Eagle, and the Chinese version of a Su-27 with an internal weapons bay and maybe thrust vectoring.
The question I pose to you is, which would you rather make your preferred air force out of? Both choices will have at least some semi-stealth/ stealth capabilities. AESA radar, and gen 4 Missiles.
Gen 5's advantages are far superior stealth abilities, better thrust vectoring, better survive ability, and the ability to communicate instantly with each other through a secure data link, sharing target information and other critical data throughout the formation.
Their disadvantages are extreamly high costs, so you cannot have a ton of them, various bugs because they are the first versions of themselves (ie, the F-22A now has its kinks that will be worked out by the F-22B or F-22C), the are a bit slow to make, and Murphy's Law (Like a weapons bay door stuck open, or lucky shrapnel damage to the air frame) can cancel out their stealth
Examples: F-22, F-35, YF-23, PAK-FA, MiG 1.44, Su-47, J-20
Gen 4++ advantages would be realitivly cheaper costs, so you have have 2 or 3 for every 1 Gen 5, that most pilots would be already familiar with them because they would be familiar with their previous incarnations (F-15E to F-15SE), and companies production lines could be more easily adapted to make them, so they are quicker to make.
Their disadvantages would be lower surviveability, somewhat "dated" designs, the lack of the data link and HMD with few exceptions (The Eurofighter has the HMD), and as more Gen 5s come online, they will be at an ever growing disadvantage.
Examples: F-15SE, updated Eurofighters, Su-35BM, MiG-35, and various Chinese designs.
I would love to hear all of your opinions on this ^^
The question I pose to you is, which would you rather make your preferred air force out of? Both choices will have at least some semi-stealth/ stealth capabilities. AESA radar, and gen 4 Missiles.
Gen 5's advantages are far superior stealth abilities, better thrust vectoring, better survive ability, and the ability to communicate instantly with each other through a secure data link, sharing target information and other critical data throughout the formation.
Their disadvantages are extreamly high costs, so you cannot have a ton of them, various bugs because they are the first versions of themselves (ie, the F-22A now has its kinks that will be worked out by the F-22B or F-22C), the are a bit slow to make, and Murphy's Law (Like a weapons bay door stuck open, or lucky shrapnel damage to the air frame) can cancel out their stealth
Examples: F-22, F-35, YF-23, PAK-FA, MiG 1.44, Su-47, J-20
Gen 4++ advantages would be realitivly cheaper costs, so you have have 2 or 3 for every 1 Gen 5, that most pilots would be already familiar with them because they would be familiar with their previous incarnations (F-15E to F-15SE), and companies production lines could be more easily adapted to make them, so they are quicker to make.
Their disadvantages would be lower surviveability, somewhat "dated" designs, the lack of the data link and HMD with few exceptions (The Eurofighter has the HMD), and as more Gen 5s come online, they will be at an ever growing disadvantage.
Examples: F-15SE, updated Eurofighters, Su-35BM, MiG-35, and various Chinese designs.
I would love to hear all of your opinions on this ^^
Raw Skills will win any day, because a human can do so much more than a computer can.
And NATO, and the Israelis seem to have the best at the moment, while Russia is a close second, they are just trying to bridge the gap with "Stealth" Aircraft, and the Chinese are just copying shit.
There is a reason so many of these little countries bank on nukes as a deterrent for any action past economic sanction to be taken against them, because they know they would get fucking reamed by the US alone, let alone NATO in full force. Libya was a good example.
I doubt russia would side with them either, their relations have really soured. Only thing Russia does is sell stuff to them, and the chinese then just reverse engineer, and modify without lisence to.
Bad for business you see.
All you get is fallout and that tends to affect more than the target area, not to mention besides Iran at the moment, Israel are not exactly liked in the middle east either. They use nukes on a fellow Muslim country, you bet your ass the termoil in Egypt and Syria would stop and you'd see a revival of the wars from the 60s and 70s.
Meanwhile our gas prices shoot up.
I really like more modest stuff such as, well, 4th gen, it seems.
I think only the F-15SE will have the F-22/F-35 data link compatability though
Like with the F-35s in Canada: Defence Minister Peter MacKay brushed off the safety issue when he was asked last summer what would happen if the F-35’s single engine failed on patrol in the Far North. “It won’t,” he replied.
http://www.therecord.com/opinion/co.....canadian-crews
And the F-35 surely cannot do the A-10s role like they are suggesting recently.