Journalists are such morons. It isn’t a 79 billion dollar advantage, it is 220 million per plane over the Typhoon. With that 220 million you get a plane the Euro pilots said they could not get within 20 miles of, and within in that they were evenly matched. Looks like it is still worth the advantage.
When you can blow up a plane at the end of your enemy’s runway from 40 miles out... what the hell do you need to dog fight for?
LLS
This is not really a big shock. The Eurofighter is a very capable airframe and has some darn good missiles to go with their helmet-mounted sights. It is just not stealthy. If the pilot can see the F-22 it can get off an IR missile.
But I’m pretty sure the judges are “cheating.”
Because of stealth, the F-22 gets to CHOOSE if it wants to engage at close range; it can see the enemy but they can’t see the F-22. If it doesn’t want to fight close, it salvoes its AMRAAMS, a bunch of enemies fall out the sky, and the F-22 goes home. End of fight.
But the judges are probably starting the fight with fighters in visual range where the F-22s advantages are negated. So you have two equally matched airframes with equally well trained pilots trying to get each other to angle where they can get off an IR missile. Fifty-fifty is about right.