>>Patently ridiculous. The F-22 would stuff it up its own tailpipe<<
“Perform” has almost no meaning in today’s world anyway. Outside of dogfights, most of the battles are BVR controlled by avionics.
I didn’t google it but have there been many real dogfights in the last 20 years? From all I have read the F-15 still can outperform the new F-35, the latter which was mission-creeped to death.
Well, AWACS are probably the most important thing if you think about it.