I am happy for the deal. Sanctions just reinforce their resolve to make a bomb. Pandering to their enemies also just gives them the moral high ground to build a nuclear weapon as well (if moral high ground and nuclear weapons can go together).

I need this for reasons!

I think that one of the biggest issues with the F-35 is that it is touted as a massive game changer, when in reality a lot of its tech is useful but specific.

These were the words of an F-35 pilot!

Sigh. The people of Crimea will vote in the next election. It seems a little off that you would think they would redo a past election because there are more voters now. And as I mentioned previously, I would rather have Vladimir Putin than Gennady Zuyganov as the Russian president.

No, I am specifically referring to the 2012 Russian Presidential Elections. Your are really not making any sense here because that happened BEFORE Crimea. Probably need to check context before your open your mouth

or they could just continue to use Russian engines. The infrastructure to build high quality engines is there but not the knowledge...yet. They could export with Russian engines like the J-10 and JF-17, but their own engines are not really far off at all

oh, so you do prefer Russia going back to the USSR. I would hate to see the day when the Communist Party of the Russian Federation rules.

Except Putin isn’t a dictator, democratically elected in the 2012 elections, or were you rooting for Gennady Zuyganov?

Borders change, get over it.

All eyes on Pakistan I guess. I am sure they will buy it first.

Nope. Only the Dassault Rafale is the same, all others are anywhere between 1.5x to 3x the firing time.

Well, it's not bad. Just because it was made by Chinese does not mean it's bad. I have not heard anything potentially damning about it except by people whose knowledge of Chinese aircraft goes as deep as sinophobic slurs.

The gun has only 3 second of fire.

My main criticism of the F-35 is what it has taken up.

I was reading a report a long time ago about a potential conflict with China, and the usefulness of the F-22. It was saying that if you keep about 20 set aside for maintenance, and a few others based at strategic points, the maximum you can have on station at once is about 4, because around half are down for…

Yah. I disregarded much of that post from War is Boring when they said the Su-35 is stealthy. Don’t get me wrong, I personally think the Su-35 is the all around best aircraft of all time, but stealthy it is not, Sukhoi doesn't advertise it as such, neither does the Russian Air Force.

And within hours of you posting that the J-31 has been cleared for export...

That animation is too fun for a doomsday weapon.

Agreed. The Empirial troops were pretty bad compared to their predecessors. I really hope they make them seem more of a threatening enemy in Force Awakens. Those Droidekas were awesome, and almost made up for the pod race in the first movie, almost.