I agree that we are comparing apples to qumquats, but if its apples and qumqauts that are on the market, thats what you compare. The fact that apple sellers tried to develop the papaya are a qumqaut alternative is neither here nor there. They didnt, and the F-22 goes up against either things easily handled by the F-15 or Su-30mkks belonging to China. Nothing else is realistic. The F-22 is never going to shoot down a Eurofighter, or a Rafale, or a Gripen.
Im pretty sure the Adder has about 20 miles on the AMRAAM. Which, if the two aircraft could both detect each other, would be a huge advantage, and the Su-27's greater top speed would make its kill radius much bigger than the F-22's- sratch one F-22. This is an entirely possible situation as far as I know, since the Su varients can use 3rd party radar tracking from a hugely more powerful, longer wavelength ground radar. Which would be able to track the F-22 with ease, imo, since returns are no longer going to be off small crap like with an airborne fighter radar, but possbly off the biggest structural components... like a wing. RAM can only do so much. The fact that some radar can now track both F-117 and B-2s (as evidenced, partly, by the fact that Kosovan 'stealth' missions required *supposedly* upwards of 20 support aircraft flying interference.
I doubt that anti-radiation misles would work air-to-air, though it has been suggested. With a ground radar, when it lights up, you only have to 'track' it once, and it doesnt go anywhere. As said, a fighter like the F-22 could just turn off its radar if it thinks an ARM is inbound. Which I suppose it might not know, since ARMs are passive, are they not?
The F-22 replaces the F-15. In the long run, after 2020 or whenever the last C/D F-15s retire, its on its own as a 1st day air dominance fighter. If you beleive the F-35 'bashers' that is.
The AWACS can detect at range X, but the F-22 can detect beyond that since the radiation intensity is an inverse square going out, and coming back. Probably, anyway. I assume so. But thats going to be waaaay beyond missle range, even for a ramjet missile.
imo, part of the weakness of the F-22 project is a poor actual weapons system. A meteor-class AMRAAM is no doubt still in development (unless the US buys Meteor, that is), but it is going to preceed the F-22 significantly. The two projects should go in parallel, and should have been linked to Soviet projects- the US is constantly about 5-10 years ahead of the Russians, which makes them 5-10 years behind, in a certain sense.
I would suggest that the Tigershark was not intended to replace the F-16 at all, but rather to be a somewhat LESS capable aircraft than a later-block F-16 intended for export to semi-freindly nations.
Re the F-35 becoming the 'mainstay'- firstly, it IS complimentary, and since about 250 F-22s will end up being produced, it IS the de facto mainstay. It is also perfectly capable of being a stop-gap until UCAVs start turning up- the only technology it is going up against is 4th gen russian stuff. People say things like 'But in a shooting war, the F-22 has double the survivability of an F-35, would you risk the lives of US aviators for money?' To which the asnwer is YES. As long as enough F-35s are produced to be able to vastly outnumber any concivable technologically advanced enemy, air war against the US is untihinkable. And if anyone did try it and inevitably lost, would I trade $70b dollars (though more like 40b these days) for the lives of 20 US aviators? YES. Goddamit.
However, from your sig, it doesn't seem like you are much of a Bush supporter.
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