Soviets were not following the western philosophy of air domination. Russians never tried to acheive air domination over the whole front. They were only acheiving air superirority over local theaters of fight. When an offensive started, Russians had the air superiority. Call it "tactical...
F2/F4 - it was the plane, that kicked RAF during Kanalkampf and, in my personal opinion, the final stage of Bf 109 developement. G and K were just an attemt to make use of outdated airframe by placing stronger engine in it.
Why EF2000 has better air to air package? Both planes currently carry AIM-120, and both will be carrying Meteors. Difference is in SRAAMs - ASRAAM for EF and IRIS-T for Gripen, but I don't think that ASRAAM gives EF2000 upper hand in terms of weaponry. EF2000 currently lack much in area of AS...
It changed somewhere in the mid-43, when Russians got situation under control and better planes. I-15/I-16 duo, ŁaGG-3, MiG-3 and Yak-1/Yak-7 (even early Yak-9) simply sucked and were inferior even to relative old German planes (like Bf 109E-4). fact, that before the war Stalin ordered execution...
May I disagree? Since 1938, when Polikarpow screwed the I-180 and new constructors started to create fighters, Soviet tactics turned away from manoeuvrability. They were more concered since then with speed. And even pre-1938 Soviets were not making "more manoeuvrable" fighters, but they followed...
sorry, I totally forgot about that post. I usualy post only in the ww2 threads and don't scroll so far down.
Well, it was not "war sinking" but during some excersises on Baltic Sea. And what NATO ships were "sunk" by polish submarines - I do not know. There was short information on Polish...
VVS is not like USAF. They have different doctrine and their planes are built around that doctrine. Problem is, that Russia (and probably China) is only country that can use them as they were planned and build to be used.
For example USAF planes are made so, that they can be used with each...
Sturmjaeger - Actually has two meaning. It's either pilot flying heavily armored and armed fighter made to attack 4-engined bomber from very close range, or fighter made for such attacks. First plane dedicated for such tacticks was FW 190A-8/R7 (with aditional armour around cabine and engine)...
Bombers are good for one thing - level the enemy. Problem with them, in my eyes, is, that todays conflicts (and all conflicts in forseeable future) are asymetric ones. NATO armies vs partisans (or 3rd world armies with obsolete weapons and small numbers). And while you can use bombers for...
Any modern plane will wipe the floor with F-22 in WVR.
And with very good enough ECM/ECCM it will have equal chances in BVR. F-22 is all about stealth, but it is not undetectable, and you can find him either with use of good radar with good computer, passive detection (IRST, electro-optical...
Why do you think, that they were not? Problem was, that rocket bombs were too heavy and cluster-bombs (or rather - cluster containers) used by Il's were not suited for fighter planes (amde from wood). Both LaGG and MiG could carry 2 FAB-25/50/100 bombs (one under each wing) and rockets (usualy...
Yes, 48. And we've got 37. Here you have the exact list: LINK
In the table, from left to right: Type, serial number, side number, unit that got him, production date (all are unknown), delivery date, date of main service (all empty, none was serviced in US yet), date of retire (all are...