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Originally Posted by Raellus
I may have missed something, but IIRC, his criticisms of the Flanker's lack of maneuverability at low speeds were specifically concerning the misuse of vectored thrust capabilities on some models and the impracticality of the Su-27's more notorious airshow theatrics (ie Pugachev's Cobra). In the case of the former scenario, I think he pointed out that F-22 pilots could also get themselves into trouble by over-relying on vectored thrust in a dogfight. His point was that you don't want to trade too much speed for fancy manouvers as if the aerial kung-fu stuff doesn't work first time, you're left in an incredibly vulnerable position.
I'm all in favor of upgrading our existing fleet but some of those airframes are pushing the limits of their airframe lifespans. On a somewhat related note, in an article I posted in another thread here a couple of months ago, the author stated that the USAF is no longer training its F-16 pilots for air combat. Although that might save money, it seems awfully short-sighted to me.
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Well all of that is true Raellus but the Soviets designed the original Flanker (the Su-27) as an Eagle killer. From what we now know about Soviet aerospace technology and pilot training it is highly unlikely that the Su-27 would have bettered an F-15 at WVR, and in all likelihood would have been slaughtered by a GE engined F-16 flown by a competent USAF pilot in WVR. The point being the Flanker is a big heavy air superiority fighter in the same class range as an F-15, and its best air combat environment is in the BVR arena. All of the Flanker derivatives and its Chinese clones are similar in size and capability to the original Su-27, and their alleged advantages seem to be upgrades related to radars, sensors, missiles, the tweeking of the their engines performance and additions such as vector thrust, not anything to do with radically new airframes.
Currently the F-15 and the F-16 are still being built for export, so therefore they could still be built for the USAF or newer built in-service models could also be rebuilt and upgraded at the same facilities and I'd say for a lot less money than buying a new F-35.