However, the F-35 has abysmal handling characteristics without external ordnance, let alone with it - additionally, if you load it up externally, you lose the stealth aspect. Additionally, 18,500lbs is only 8,400kg, which is less than the 34's (claimed) 12,000kg in weapons, although I don’t know if it’s ever flown…

That’s a doctrinal choice; the 34 is well capable of being used for high-altitude, high-speed precision bombing, but Russia seem to be trying to avoid using their (limited) precision ordnance stockpile.

Let’s be honest here none of the three countries you listed have real choice other than to buy US hardware especially when it comes to aircrafts. Only Japan has partial experience with developing full fledged fighter (f-1 and f-2 but still got help from Lockheed) and for political reason alone they can’t go to Russia.

Wouldn’t be very heritage if the parts were made using CnC. I expect they’d try to make the parts in exactly the same way the originals were done.

Of course, that’s assuming a high-threat A2/AD environment loaded with S-400 SAMs, which is what the 35 was designed to deal with (although the real-world value of stealth in such environments - particularly in a compromised form, as the 35 offers - is a subject of debate).

So you theoretically get 2 Su-35s for 1 F-35A (About 85 mil...They -say- that price is coming down, but I don’t know).

While they do restart the production lines, they also insist on retooling it to build area-specific variants, which lets them jack up the price even further. A quick google suggests that the F-15K was $100 million a unit, and the Saudi variant was even more than that.

Realistically, the Su-34 is a good choice for the situation.

I was told it’s what’s inside that matters.

You’re suprised how well you fit in a full-size car?

Journalism School > Automotive Journalism > Broke > Give Up All Hope > Job in Marketing at Exotic LA Car Dealer > Side Gig with McLaren > Petersen Museum.

Nah...we are too busy crashing our cars leaving cars and coffee to care

I just drove a 2007 Defender in the Gazelle Rally. It was a heavy mothertrucker but that approach angle...oh holy hell I just hit dunes straight on, went straight down sheer drop offs. The thing blasted through camel grass like it wasn’t no thang and rock climbed like the bitch that she was. I even had crappy tires…

Yes, before that he said that he had two cylinders from a nine cylinder engine.

According to my two minutes of research, it’s currently a v-twin Jap engine & was fitted with cylinders from a Tiger Moth which has taken the engine capacity from 2.1litres to 4.2litres.

I rewound that part over and over again, but all I heard him say was that he “had some cylinders off of a Tigermoth” @ 1:10 into the video. He didn’t specifically say he had a Tigermoth engine, just the cylinders from one and used a radial engine with 9-cylinders dated to around the 1920s. I think Andrew just heard…

Doug, can we get you a better lav mic? Preferably one that doesn’t look like a USB drive from 2006 attached to your collar?

Doug, for maximum enjoyment, do you recommend reading the column first and then watching the video, watching the video first and then reading the column, or reading the column up until the video break and then finishing the column?

I’m really hoping the fix involves driving around with a four foot red tube hanging out the back of the car.