[RN7]

Originally Posted by ShadoWarrior

Until the Russians finish their own equivalent to the American GPS constellation, any foe that tries to use GPS against the U.S. is subject to having their equipment become useless once the U.S. flips the switch that disables use of GPS by anyone other than the U.S. military.

I did state that America retained a significant lead in satellite navigation equipment, and China seems to recognise this more than anyone and is working on putting up its own BeiDou system to provide an alternative to the US government-run Global Positioning System to make China's military less dependent on US technology.

Originally Posted by ShadoWarrior

As for sensor performance, one must consider that the public specs (which everyone seems to be referring to in this thread) for systems do not in fact reflect the real specs for non-export models of military gear, which tend to be highly classified. And the sophistication of the computers that sit behind a fighter's radar has to be considered. The U.S. remains well in advance of Russia with regards to computer chips and related microcircuits, and there's no indication that this will change anytime in the foreseeable future. A radar isn't of much use if the back-end electronics that interpret the returns isn't up to the challenge they'll face. Sure, range and signal power are important, but they aren't necessarily the most important factors in a radar system.

How good Russian jammers are as compared to western jammers isn't the point. It's how good ECM is versus ECCM. If a radar system can still pick out a target despite jamming, then the plane doing the jamming is in deep trouble.

I also stated that America retains an advantage in microchips and software for many of these systems, although I do think that Russia is catching up quicker than many think.

Originally Posted by ShadoWarrior

One needs to keep in mind that the main difference between the export models of aircraft, which is where most of the public specs are based upon, and the not-for-export models is in the (highly-classified) avionics. People can have some fun comparing export models to each other all day, but how well this reflects what will really happen if the non-export versions face each other is problematic. How much better is the not-for-export avionics? We know how good American pilots are versus second (or third) rate pilots flying export-level planes. How well would they do versus prime Russian gear flown by Russia's best? One person's wild guess is as good as the next.

I would totaly agree with there being a difference in the quality of Russian aircraft and systems produced for export and for its own forces. I think Russia is giving China and India what it wants to give it for its own reasons as well as getting a lot of cash and work for its own aerospace sector, and keeping the best for itself.