Phoenix, either this post is flame-bait, or you're displaying a little ignorance yourself. Regardless, the post is bogus on multiple levels. Discussion follows:
quote:
even the first version of Su-27, has a smaller radar signature than ANY type of F-15, including the Strike Eagle, except for the israeli version, the Ra´am.
The F-15I has the exact same RCS as the US F-15E...there is no special RAM or radar-absorbant paint on it.
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Second of all, it has a greater thrust-to-weight ratio than the F-15 and better avionics.
Better avionics?? Based on what? Better radar? Better RWR? Better jammer? What experience or information makes you think this? My information *and* experience says otherwise.
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The Su-37 is an Su-27, which has seen A LOT of improvement in all of those areas, which makes it the BEST operational strike-fighter today.
The Su-37 is a *one off* aircraft. There is *one* (1) of them. I don't deny this jet's impressive airshow demonstration and thrust vectoring nozzles, but you can hardly call a one-off aircraft an "operational strike fighter." If that's the game, then why don't you compare it to the F-22 -- which it is at a significant disadvantage against in both the BVR arena and the WVR fight (without the Archer and the HMS).
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It also has better sensory equipment than the F-15, it can detect and launch missiles at aircraft over 150 miles away
Impressive! Just out of curiosity, what is the max range of the Su-27's radar scope? (Hint, I know the answer, and it's not 150 miles!)
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compare a virtually unarmed MiG-29 with no sensory equipment at all, its only armament being the guns, flown by a completely untrained pilot, to a fully A/A armed F-15C.
So, a Serbian MiG-29 (with a SLOTBACK radar which, in my book, qualifies as "sensory equipment") with AA-10As and AA-11s is "virtually unarmed"? If you look at the photos of the crash site of the aircraft, you can clearly see both these missile types. In addition, the pilots' own reports reveal that they attempted to shoot ARCHERs. As for the pilots, Major Slobodan Peric and Captain 1st Class Zoran Radosavljevic (both shot down) were "completely untrained pilots"?
I'll agree with the main point of your post -- that is, the FLANKER and FULCRUM are both formidible threats to US fighter aircraft. Yes, underestimating their abilities can be deadly. There are some of us, however, on this board who are professional fighter pilots. I make it my business to *not* be ignorant about my potential threats and *not* to underestimate their capabilities, because doing so may cost me my life someday. I spend a lot of time studying a wide variety of source material, exploitation material, and intelligence material about the FLANKER and other threats. I'm fairly confident that I'm not being deluded by some huge NATO conspiracy to devalue the capabilities of these threats, especially when people I work with have *actually flown* these threats and seen their capabilities firsthand.
Based on this, I think your assessment of the capabilities of the FLANKER vis a vis the F-15 are inaccurate.
Edited by - Randy Haskin on 05/09/2001 22:57:18