The Internet is being flooded with all sorts of claims about 4+ and 5th generation fighters and I think that some reality needs to be re-injected into all this. Thankfully, Air Power Australia, which always has very good technical analyses, published an excellent comparative chart which is very helpful in getting some sense of the real capabilities of the various 4+ and 5th generation fighters currently in existence: Ok. I
Check out this high res photo taken below the PAKFA which clearly shows the 4 weapon bays (between the engine nacelles) and the 4 additional external mounting points (external wings). This is *a lot* of firepower. Found this one on the excellent militaryphotos.net site (again) (Click on the photo for the high res.)
I just found these pictures at militaryphotos.net: You can clearly see from these photos that the US F-22 and the Russian PAK-FA are dramatically different aircraft. As as aside, militaryphoto.net is a very decent place to get some good discussions on military topics. Unlike so many other fora, the jingoistic flag-waving trolls usually get rapdly denounced because a lot of competent folks post there.
Make sure to click on the photo for the high-res original!
Some of you have expressed interest in the new Russian 5th generation multi-mission combat aircraft known as the PAK-FA or T-50. There is a lot of nonsense written about this aircraft, but in this sea of crap, I found one analysis which is so good that I decided to re-print it here in-extenso. This is something I found on the Aviation Week Ares blog and it is written by Bill
