[Bruce_the_vii]

People here at CKA seem to have military experience and instead of me looking it up I am wondering the the hottest Soviet jets that would be put up against the F35 are. Should an Arab sheik arm himself with these and then take on a military adventure what are the capabilities of these soviet latest. The F35 is slow, even the F22 is slow so what would happen.

[bootlegga]

From what I've seen, the current crop of Russian (not Soviet) jets would get smoked long before they ever saw the F-35, simply because the F-35 has better electronics and stealth, so it can see farther and hide longer than most of its opponents.

My biggest concern with the F-35 is that it is single engine. That is fine if you happen to live in Europe or the lower 48 states, but patrolling the Arctic on one engine sounds like a supremely bad idea to me.

[Bruce_the_vii]

This is sort of the nut. However my understanding is the Russian planes are fast and maneuverable. Up close the F35 has a radar cross section.

[bootlegga]

It doesn't matter in the 21st century, most kills are by missile, not guns. And those kills happen at long range, as much as 10 km away. Western pilots also fly many more hours than those of potential adversaries (China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc).

From my current understanding of aerial warfare, here's kind of what happens nowadays;

1. AWACS plane detects incoming strike of enemy planes

2. Fighters launched to attack incoming planes (CAP planes may already be airborne)

3. AWACS planes direct western fighters towards enemy planes

4. Both sides do their best to jam enemy radar - the West still has a huge lead in electronic warfare, so they can see enemy planes at a farther distance

5. Fighters launch AA missiles as soon as they have target lock - Western planes generally have a longer range to do this, so enemy planes may have to endure a salvo or two of incoming missiles without being able to fire back.

6. AWACS determines remaining number of incoming enemy planes and then a decision is made whether or not to engage with guns (AKA dogfight).

OR

6. Enemy planes withdraw due to heavy losses

7. If the enemy is determined and continues forward, then fighters engage in a dogfight. However, by this time, many enemy planes are smoking piles of wreckage on the ground and maybe even outnumbered by defending fighters. This is when Russian planes MAY have an advantage, but I'm doubtful about that too, simply due to better training and flying time Western pilots have.

Speed and agility may give a plane a slightly better chance to avoid incoming missiles, but due to the fact that missiles can endure more Gs than people and often travel faster than many planes, it's only perhaps another 5%-20% chance of surviving missile attack.

Basically, many Russian planes will never get close enough to see the F-35 cross section...

[Bruce_the_vii]

Thanks for that little ABC. I was dwelling on the dog fight, which would be rare.

[uwish]

I think boots has it summed up pretty tight. As for ACM with an enemy aircraft from what I have read, it can do circles around the F-16 which is considered one of the most agile lightweight western fighters around.

I would guess in the simmulators they have flown these birds against all kinds of MIG foes. I think it would be able to hold it's own with little difficulty but in my view, it still isn't so much about the airframe but the guy IN the airframe that makes the difference.