Lets just get right to the point. Russia has a new fighter aircraft that is going to be in mass production sometime within the next year or so. It's capable of Mach 1.7 - 1.8 supercruise (F22 is rated 1.7 supercruise) and they are planning a Navy version as well that can be launched and recovered by the Russian Fleet's Flag Ship (and only aircraft carrier). For all the goodies and in depth info, click here: PAK FA.
In all honesty this isn't all that surprising, our intelligence knew that eventually other countries would catch up to our technology. It took them a century to do it considering the F22 has been around a good while now but credit where credit is due, this new Sukhoi produced aircraft is one hell of a performer.
If you decipher all the nerd speak, its got several radar points (2 in the wings, 1 in the nose and 1 in the ass which means it knows everything that is going on around it 360 degrees), 360 degree trust vectoring (F22 is limited to up and down only), Front canards that work in conjunction with the thrust nozzles as well as the ailerons, rudders, and elevators (NASA experimented with front canards on the F15XL but the project was scraped along with the delta winged F16XL), and to top all of this off its not even using its production engines yet which are supposedly more efficient and achieve greater thrust values (IE: It's going to be faster than it already is).
You can bet if this aircraft really is all its cracked up to be, it's going to give the F22 a REALLY bad day.
Because the F22 is no longer being produced, logic tells us that the Pentagon already has something else in the works to stay one step ahead (as always). Especially considering that China and Japan are debuting their new 5th gen fighters in the next few years.
The scary part is that the PAK FA (aka T-50 and SU-50) isn't being built just for the Russians. Other countries including North Korea and India have been placed on the waiting list.
So what's all of this mean for our Air Force? If you are thinking the F35 is going to come and save the day, keep in mind that it is NOT a direct replacement for the Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet or the Air Force's F15C/E Eagle (The top 2 aircraft under the F22 for Multirole Fighter OPS). The F35 Lightning II was designed to be and will be a replacement for the F16 Falcon, F/A-18C/D Hornet, Harrier, and A10 Warthog. The F22 was designed for the Air Force to be the direct replacement for the F15C/E but since the production has been terminated it is not clear what the Air Force plans to do long term to replace the F15.
My speculation leads me to believe there is a significant rework going behind closed doors of the F22 by Lockheed Martin as well as Boeing. Both firms will undoubtedly be debuting test aircraft within the next 5 years when the Defense budget has stabilized. The Pentagon will award the contract to the winning aircraft as usual (the Lockheed F22 beat out the Northrop YF23 for the 5th gen contract and the Lockheed F35 beat out the Boeing X32 for JSF. Seeing a pattern yet? Lockheed knows their shit when it comes to building Military Aircraft.)
Having said that, the only 6th Gen Fighter currently declassified to the level of "Concept" at this stage is the F/A-XX from Boeing. This bugger hasn't even entered the build stage yet and is proposed as a direct replacement to the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet by 2025. Beyond that there is very little information about it.
The latest info that everyone has managed to gather is that the Air Force is going to focus on completing its JSF project and start retiring aircraft that have extended well beyond their service lives. I foresee a potential problem however that if they don't invest in next gen tech now, we could be looking @ several potential threats to homeland security as well as air superiority. The production numbers for the JSF top just over the 3000 mark for the Navy, Air Force, Marines and various NATO/Allied countries such is Israel and Germany.
So, I ask you, what do you think needs to happen? Should the DOD focus on completing the JSF before investing in next gen tech, or should we be concerned about the potential threat that we may lose our edge in the skies because we are on a level playing field?
The F35, despite everything that the DOD has assured us, is NOT the solution to maintaining air superiority. What makes us the most deadly country in the skies is the fact that we have the most advanced weaponry. That dominance seems to be fading away rather quickly the longer we sit back and let the President fund his personal agenda.
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