“Stealth as a military advantage is dead... the Air Force is just the last people to admit it. We’ve now known for years that low frequency radar can beat our stealth measures... like special coatings and angled surfaces. All things being equal, a joint strike fighter would be toast against the newer Su-27 derivatives. The Navy was going to rely on helmet-mounted tracking systems to give their Super Hornets an advantage against Sukhois, but now the Russians are getting them too.”
Please cite some sources claiming *airborne* radar can detect stealth platforms. It is probably possible to detect stealth aircraft with ground-based radar - if the planes fly high enough that is. IIRC B-2 bombers are low-level penetrators.
The things that would provide a level playing field are daylight and/or good IR sensor technology. Oh, except for the lack of radar guided missiles guiding.
‘In bang for the buck terms, the horrible truth right now is that the latest Sukhois may be the best fighters in the world.”’
Amazing how people fail to learn from history. I remember when the MIG-25 was widely feared as an F-15 killer...
I expect the F-22 and F-35 lines will maintain a 20-1 or better kill ratio against manned opponents. It’s the unmanned fighters that I’d be concerned about.
Umm, I believe one of the reasons for the F-15’s design specs was that it should have been able to beat the Mig-25. The Mig entered service quiet a while before the F-15. I think the Egyptians got a handful of Mig-25s even before the USAF got their first F-15.
Of course we shouldn’t forget that the Egyptian Foxbat story ended with an Israeli Eagle downing one of them!!