Since World War II, fighter jets have remained an integral part of military victory. The United States and Russia take the top places in the development of aerial warfare technologies. Advanced fighters on the U.S. side include the F-22 Raptor, the F-35A Lightning II, the F-15EX, and the F/A-18 Super Hornet. These aircraft provide superior stealth, speed, and firepower than their Russian counterparts. Russian aerial assets include the Su-57 Felon, Su-35, MiG-29, and MiG-35, but all of these aircraft are behind in terms of stealth and success on the export market.
Developed some two decades ago, the F-22 Raptor still retains its pedestal as the most superior air superiority fighter. This melding of supermaneuverability, stealth, and super-cruise carved a radar cross-sectional design with twin thrust-vectoring engines, which gives this aircraft nearly invisibility from enemy airframes.
The F-35A Lightning II represents the most modern fifth-generation jet from the USA, with the ability to fly supersonic, be invisible to radar, and be very heavy with munitions. To date, it has sent out more than 900 units to make it the most widely fielded fifth-generation jet in the world. These air forces excel in intelligence, surveillance, electronic warfare, and reconnaissance.
Nevertheless, the F-15EX still happens to be the costliest American fighter ever built, with a unit price of nearly $94 million. In addition to this, the potential of the Eagle II to carry and launch up to 12 air-to-air missiles and lug ordnance of as heavy as 13.6 tons make it quite an interesting “bomb truck” in the skies.
The F/A-18 Block III Super Hornet is the most recent variant of the Super Hornet and is over 20 percent larger than its predecessors. With advanced ordnance capacity, stealth qualities, and enhanced range, this machine is one of the staple aircraft for the U.S. Navy. Upgraded features on the variant include a 10×19-inch touch screen, customizable and allowing pilots to process information using the Distributed Targeting Processor-Networked MC with more than 17 times the processing power of earlier variants.
Russian aerial weaponry comes in the form of four robust fighter platforms; only one flies as a fifth-generation jet, the Su-57 “Felon.” Capable of reaching Mach 2.0, the Su-57 far outclasses the F-35 Lightning II. The biggest issues with its design were related to stealth capabilities.
The Su-35, designed at the height of the Cold War as a foil to American-made F-14 and F-15 jets, has a top speed of more than Mach 2.25. It also boasts strong secondary air-to-ground features. Originally conceived during the Soviet Union, the Su-35 has retained its position as a stalwart of Russia’s air strategy.
The Mikoyan MiG-29 is another Soviet-era platform developed as a multirole fighter with a carrying capacity of nearly 9,000 pounds of weaponry. Its replacement, the MiG-35, has been in service since 2007 and represents a “4+++” generation version. Some of its features include an Active Electronically Scanned Array radar, giving it a decided advantage over earlier Soviet airframes. For all its capabilities, the MiG-35 has not had similar export success and remains an exclusively Russian platform.
In the final analysis, even though both the US and Russia field very competent fighter aircraft, the former is still first in class about both stealth and multi-functionality; the F-35 and F-22 have set a new standard for modern aerial warfare. Russian dependence on older types, the Su-35 and MiG-29, betrays a technological gap with the West.