What is a nth Generation fighter?

"BUFDRVR" wrote in message
...
5th Generation (???) - MiG 1.42, Su-30 series or FA/22, F-35

Fourth.

Hmmm, okay Mary what would a 5th Generation fighter be? They are using
that
term fairly regularly when discussing the Su-30 family.

I hate to use Pravda as a source, but according to it the Russians are just
now envisioning a fifth generation fighter, so that would seem to nix that
definition for the Su-30...

english.pravda.ru/society/2002/07/16/32583.html

Of course other Russian sources do indicate that the Su-32 is what they term
a fifth generation aircraft...

www.aeronautics.ru/nws001/tass054.htm

Then we have LMCO and Saab claiming the F-16 (later blocks) and JAS-39 are
*both* fourth generation fighters...

www.awgnet.com/shownews/today/airfrm5.htm

And another source lumps the F-22, Gripen, and Rafael into the fourth
generation heap...

www.strategicstudies.org/stratpol/SP8-999e.htm

And, almost laughably, the Chinese have claimed parentage of a fourth
generation fighter 9as if they ever really made it much past the second
generation, by anybody's standards)...

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/20...7_103384.shtml

What all this tells me is that (a) there is no standard convention for
determining what generation a fighter is, and (b) it is more of a marketing
ploy than anything else (witness Saab's past harping about allegedly having
the only fourth generation fighter in service).

Brooks



BUFDRVR

"Stay on the bomb run boys, I'm gonna get those bomb doors open if it
harelips
everyone on Bear Creek"